How to be a Halfblood And Not Die a Painful Death
by K. E. Holden
Summary: Keirin is your average 8th grader. Until she finds out that she has a half brother and that her dad is some moldy old Greek god. When she out of all the kids at a camp for half bloods, is chosen for a quest. Will she make it back alive or die a hero?
1. prolugue

It was finally summer break. School was officially over! Even though I hadn't been within a mile of my school building for a month or more. I rather didn't enjoy being hunted on a daily biases. Here let's start from the beginning.

~ 1 month ago

"Ugg, Chelsa I'm so tired of Derrick! He was"

"Oh my god the new guy is so sexy." My friend Chelsa Rondue said. When I turned around from what I was getting out of my locker, I saw who she was staring at. I had to admit, he had the right look. With honey hazle eyes and shoulder length brown hair. But something about him was off, he seemed different. And not in a good way; a shiver went down my spine as he turned toward me and our eyes met.

"Oh my god! He is totally checking you out!" She squealed as the guy looked me up and down. The way his eyes seemed to look more through me then at me gave me the creeps. Soon enough he was walking over, and something inside of me was screaming at my legs to run for their lives.

"Hey" He said flipping his brunet hair across his forehead and out of his eyes. "I'm Chase. I couldn't help but notice you looking my way." He said, adding a smile that seemed all too bright. When I looked up at his eyes, I could tell he was wearing a contact but only one in his left eye to cover up what looked like blue.

"Umm yeah you're new, welcome to school. I'm Keirin Larson." I said stretching out my hand to shake. When I said my name he got a weird look on his face.

"Hey can we talk somewhere more quite? Let's go to the library." Chase said, taking my hand and pulling me after him. When we reached the library the lights were dimmed and it made the place look more like a murder scene then a library.

"I've been watching you Keirin." He said stepping into the darkness of the library, leaving me just inside of the door way. "You don't know why, do you?" As he said this, the door behind me slammed close and I could hear the lock click. He let out a cold laugh, his voice changing becoming lower, and seemingly older. When he stepped closer I could see that something had changed. He was no longer Chase; he had the body of a lion and the head of a man with teeth like a shark. And he was moving closer his hot breath searing my legs now. "Mmmmmm… I can taste it now. Demi-god, underworld flavor." He hissed at me, licking his lips.

As I backed up I ran into something hard and lost my balance. Before I could hit the ground and become demon-cat chow an arm reached out and caught me, pulling me up against his chest. "You lost the last ones you tried to catch. Remember me?" The unknown voice shouted at the thing Chase had turned into. It was low and smooth with confidence but I didn't find it attractive. It was shockingly familiar.

"What you? Oh I wasn't hungry then; it was just a job. Now it's a meal!" He said leaping towards us. He had a light in his eyes that told me he wasn't lying about wanting to eat us. "Now you don't have that pesky little goddess to save you tails!" He said as arrows flashed past my head and into the wall behind me. If we hadn't been in a life or death situation I probably would have found what he'd said odd, but right then I just wanted to live.

"Okay I'm gonna get you out of here but you gotta trust me okay?" He whispered in my ear while at the same time trying to duck from the arrows whizzing toward us from nowhere. They kept coming always missing us by just an inch or less. I was wondering when he was going to end the game and just get to killing us.

"Just get me away from that thing!" I yelled. And then I heard wind and saw only darkness surround me.


	2. Arival

So that's how I got here. Camp Half Blood. When I woke up I was in a strange bed with strange people leaning over me, as if I was their science project. When they saw my eyes open they all let out their breath.

"Well you didn't kill her." One of them said. It was a middle aged man in a wheel chair, and he had a scruffy beard and thinning hair. I figured he was the adult figure of where ever I was.

"You were lucky." Another one said. He was around17 years old I guessed and had sea green eyes and dark hair. Next to him was an athletic looking blond girl, with stormy grey eyes.

"Hey it was either shadow travel or get turned into Swiss cheese by the Manticore!" The last one said. It was the guy who had saved me from Chase. Or whatever thing had said it was Chase. Now that we weren't being attacked I could see that he had dark hair and eyes.

"Ummm… can one of you tell me what's going on and where I am?" I asked sitting up to get a good look around. I was on a couch in a strange room there was stuffed leopard on the wall that if I looked close enough I could swear that I saw it breathing…

"Well, now that you're awake, welcome to Camp Half Blood." The older guy said. "My name is Chiron; I'm camp director along with Mr.D who currently has other arrangements on Olympus."

"Uh, wait. Did you just say Olympus? And do you mean Chiron, like the centaur Chiron?" I asked. I was into Greek mythology so this was either a really cool dream or I was awake and this was really happening. "Like the guy who trained Achilles and Perseus and Jason, THAT Chiron?" I asked again.

"Well, yes, I certainly am." He said, looking surprised and proud that I knew all that stuff about him. "And this is Annabeth," he said pointing to the blond girl. "This would be Percy," he said, nodding toward the guy with green eyes. "And this is Nico, the one who brought you hear." He finished pointing toward the guy who'd saved me from Chase.

"So, all of that Greek mythology is real? Zeus and Poseidon and Hades, and all the gods and goddesses are real?" I asked, my eyes getting big. Could all of that actually be real?

"Um, yeah but we usually avoid using names… They have power, and shouldn't be used for no reason." The guy with green eyes, Percy, said.

"So what's this camp for exactly?" I asked. If this was like the old myths and Chiron still trained heroes then this camp had to be for something along those lines.

"Well as you said the Greek gods are still around, shifting with the heart of the west, western civilization. And their power still exists too. And it still gets passed on to their children." Annabeth, the girl beside Percy said. "And they still have their old habit of having children with mortals. That's why we're all here. I'm a daughter of Athena, Percy is a son of Poseidon, and Nico is a son of Hades." She finished.

"Wait, first of all isn't Athena one of the maiden goddesses? And who's my godly parent?" I asked getting very confused.

"She's smart; sure she might not be my half sister?" Annabeth asked Chiron with a laugh. "And yes Athena is a maiden goddess. Her children are all born the same way she was, from thought. Your parent is unknown, but you should be claimed soon. So first off is your mortal parent your mom or dad?" She asked me.

"Um my mom, I guess." I said, thinking of my family. They weren't really my family, except in biology for my mom and my half sister. Then I had a stepdad, but none of them really liked me. My mom always seemed to be watching me as if I was dangerous, my sister was a brat who if she didn't get what she wanted yelled and yelled until you gave it to her, and then my stepdad was a lazy slob who wouldn't do anything but lay on his butt. I didn't like going home at the end of the day to say the least.

"Well then that mean's your godly parent would be one of the male gods. You could be Percy's or even Nico's half sister." Annabeth said looking at the two boys. I saw Nico get a sad look on his face when Annabeth mentioned Nico and me possibly being his sister. I decided that I would find out why later.

"So how will my godly parent claim me?" I asked. What was he going to do? Come down and pull a Darth Vader move? Keirin – shhhh – I am – shhhh – your – shhhh – father – shhhh. Yeah, I could see that happening.

"You'll get a sign. Some get the normal glowing sign over their head like Percy, while others get to figure it out on their own like Nico. Hopefully you'll get a sign" She said, her eyes hovering above my head like she expected me to get a sign right that minute.

"Well you'll be staying here until we figure it out either way. Percy how about you give her a tour before dinner, and tell her about the camp fire and such." Chiron said getting up. When he stood up his other half, his horse half, came out of the wheel chair, and he was in full on centaur mode. "I, in the meantime have an archery class to teach." He said grabbing a bow and quiver from a nearby table.

"K, let's go see the camp, shall we?" Percy said, offering his hand to help me up. And off we went out the front door and on to a large wrap around porch.


	3. Dinner with Dad

The tour was okay, I learned about all the different cabins and who they belonged to. Whenever we passed by a cabin for one of the male gods I could see Percy thinking, wondering if this or that cabin was the one I would end up in. It was weird walking around; everyone looked at me, as if I was just another new camper, nothing different, just the most recent. Some waved and sent me welcoming smiles, which I tried to return; having your world turned upside down made being friendly a little challenging. Others just gave me a passing glance. Some got a funny look on their face when they saw me with Percy, but he didn't seem to take any notice, so I tried to focus on what cabin we were at now.

The one we were at now was awesome; huge black obsidian walls, torches burning with green flame that was visible even in the daylight. When I looked up above the door, and saw ΆΙδης͵ written there. I don't know how but I knew what it meant; Hades. Lord of the dead. I could now see the scenes of terror that were carved into the walls; pictures of painful death and punishment, for the deeds done in the previous life.

"Wow" I whispered, awestruck at the images before me. Percy apparently felt similar even if to a lesser degree.

"The Hades cabin. This is where Nico stays; when he's at camp that is. He does a lot of traveling." He said turning to see my amazed expression. I was still staring at the sight in front of me barely acknowledging that he had spoken. It was beautiful and awful at the same time. On the front of the door was a skull with two glimmering rubies for eyes. I walked up to the door and reached out a hand to touch them, but before I could, Nico came over.

"I wouldn't touch those if I were you." He said nodding towards the rubies. He had a curious look on his face like he wanted to see if I was smart enough to listen or if I had the guts to touch them any way.

"Why not?" I asked him, trying to read his expression more closely. It almost looked like he was finding this funny or ironic.

"They're cursed. Persephone gave them to me thinking I wouldn't know what they were and would end up getting myself cursed." Nico said a look of dislike coming over his face. I could tell he didn't like his dad's wife very much. "But contrary to popular belief, I am not stupid and I do my research." He said smiling.

"And why do you have them on your door?" Percy asked looking a little against the idea of having cursed rubies out where anyone could just come up and touch them.

"Idiot repellent, my friend; Keeps the Aphrodite kids away. They do tend to annoy me." He said looking past us at what I guessed was the Aphrodite cabin, number 10. It was a picture perfect suburban house, with a white picket fence and pink flowers everywhere. There was a girl outside tending the flowers and when she noticed Nico looking over at her she smiled coyly and waved.

"Well that's the tour, so why don't we head over to dinner?" Percy asked pointing over towards a large open-air pavilion we'd passed earlier. It was high on a hill, overlooking the sea. There was no roof and instead of having walls, it was edged by huge, white, Grecian columns. There were about 12 large stone tables inside. On one corner there was a scar in the marble. I turned to Percy with a question in my eyes. He nodded over to Nico seeing me looking at the crack. It blew my mind that he could do something like that to solid marble. I made a mental note to never mess with children of Hades from now on.

After we all got our food, the people around me all started getting up, walking towards the brazier; food in hand. I was confused but decided to follow and watch what they did. When they got to the brazier, they scraped a portion of their meal into the fire and mouthed a silent prayer to the gods. When it was my turn I scraped half my meal into the fire and sent out a silent prayer to my father; whoever he was. _I just want to know who I am; is that too much to ask?_

When we sat down I noticed that everyone was drinking something different, and unlike everyone else's cup mine was empty. Seeing my confused look Nico said, loud enough for me to hear, "Pepsi. Umm… Please?" And suddenly his cup was filled with Pepsi. Just plain old normal Pepsi; it didn't look any different at least.

Taking the hint I looked hard at my cup and commanded "MOUNTAIN DEW!" I must have been pretty loud because everyone turned to look at me like I was crazy. And maybe I was.

The rest of the meal went normal and soon almost everyone was done and most people were sitting and talking to each other. Percy and Annabeth were holding hands and talking while some of the Ares kids were arguing over something stupid. I was looking around at all the new faces, when suddenly the pavilion went quiet. Everyone was staring at me. Well above my head to tell the truth.

"Ummm… Do I have something on my face?" I said, breaking the heavy silence as all of the campers continued staring. Whispers of "she's the one", "it can't be", and "It's her?" were everywhere. I tilted my head up to see the fading sign above my head. It was a glowing circle of dark green with a symbol inside of it. I recognized it immediately. It was what some called "the key of Hades". No matter what you called it, it still meant the same thing for me. I was a daughter of Hades.


	4. My New Roommate

I Sighed as I dropped my bag. I was moving what little stuff I had into my new cabin; the Hades cabin. Nico was nowhere to be seen which Percy said not to worry about and that he was probably just training. I wasn't so sure but right then, where was hiding wasn't my biggest concern. I remembered the scar on the pavilion floor, and thought about what that meant for me. It meant a number of things. For starters it meant that Nico wasn't to be messed with. If he could rip apart solid marble, there was no doubt in my mind that he could take me out. Secondly it meant that I was powerful, and so far I had no idea how to use that power. As if life wasn't already confusing.

"So this is the Hades cabin, where you'll be living while you're at camp." Percy said. His eyes kept darting around the room, and he kept shuffling his feet. I got the idea that there was something that he wasn't telling me. I got that feeling from a lot of people around camp. And it wasn't just because of the strange looks and funny expressions every one gave me. Where ever I went people whispered stuff like "it's her" "she's the one" and "when will they tell her?".

"Hey, Percy… What is it that everyone keeps whispering about me?" Well we have a winner for most blunt question asker of the year. I had thought about trying to be sneaky and weasel it out of some random camper, but when it came down to it all, I just wanted a straight answer some whispered gossip I might hear in the girls' room.

"It's nothing really. Trust me-"

"He's lying through his teeth." Nico said entering the room. Well it was appearing then entering. He was leaning casually against my dresser closely observing his finger nails. "Really Percy, you'd think that after having been in the same place yourself five years ago, that you'd give her break and tell her." He said walking over to stand beside Percy.

"We don't even know-"

"_Daughter of death_" Nico said, adding air quotation marks "Those were the words correct? Of course that could mean ANYTHING Percy! Maybe it's Annabeth or hey, how about you! You could be the prophecy kid again, you would just love that! Maybe you could manage to get this sister killed too while you're at it!" He said in a rage. I had no idea where it was coming from but the way Nico said it made me shiver; especially the part about getting "this sister" killed.

"Nico you know I didn't-"

"Save her? Stop her? I know it all Percy and she's still dead. So just leave." Nico said turning away from Percy. "GET OUT PERCY!" He shouted when Percy just stood there staring at Nico's back.

"Nico don't-"

"GET OUT!" This time when Nico said it the floor shook and I could practically here the power in his voice. Percy could too and left, leaving me alone with Nico.

I was about to say something when Nico collapsed on his bead. His hands were clasped over his face and he was silent, but I could see the tears. I barely knew him but I swear I could feel his pain, and I wanted to go and comfort him so badly. But I hardly knew him and from what I'd just seen I wasn't sure if he would thank me or yell at me to get out too. I took my chances and walked over and sat down on the bed next to him. I reached over and placed my hand on his back.

"I- Are you okay?" I said leaning down to look at his face. He moved away is hands and what I saw scared me. He looked so sad, but above all hurt.

"No, but that doesn't matter." He said wiping the tears from his face onto his sleeve. When I looked at his face again, it was as if he had wiped away all feeling.

"Yes it does." I was surprised by the fierceness of my voice, the certainty. "What's wrong? How can I help?" I said reaching down and grabbing his hand in both of mine.

"It's a long story that I don't care to tell." He said shaking his head as if shaking away the pain. "It's in the past and doesn't make a difference."

"What did you mean, "Maybe you could manage to get this sister killed too"" I asked him. His face got that look on it again and I almost regretted having asking the question except for the fact that I needed answers.

"It's a long story-"

"And we have all night" I said giving him my most stubborn look.

He laughed at that, and then got a more serious look on his face. "I had a sister, a long time ago, just three years actually but it seems like a hundred. Her name-" he broke off to take a shuddering breath "her name was Bianca. She went on a quest with Percy. Before they left I told him to take care of her, make sure she came back safe. But she died. And he let her. I know it wasn't his fault, but he could have saved her. He's save Annabeth hundreds of times, but when my sister sacrificed herself for him and the other people on the quest, he stood there and watched her run to her death." He looked at me with those eyes filled with pain and I felt terrible, for him and his lost sister; my sister. "I just- I don't want to lose another sister. When I heard about you I knew I needed to find you; bring you to camp. My – our – dad had been acting strangely, even for him. And he was extra nervous around Persephone, doing all these things for her for no reason. I think he thought that she knew about you and wanted to hurt you. So I had my suspicions. All my mortal relatives are dead but you. Now I have you."

That was a lot to tell a girl. That she was your only family and you didn't want to lose her, it was surprising to say the least. "I- umm- thanks. I don't really have any family either. And it's nice to have someone care that much about me. So yeah, thanks." I said. It was super lame compared to him having just poured out his heart to me, but it was the best I could come up with.

"So about the whole _daughter of death_ thing-"

"Stop, please. I don't think I even want to know any more. Let's get some sleep." I said. It sent shiver down my spine when he said the words _daughter of death_. It was as if they were more than just words; as if they would come true.

After putting away what little stuff I had, Nico declared lights-out and we both went to sleep and the torches of green flame inside the cabin went out at his words. I lay in my new bed thinking; about my new life and my new brother. It was a lot to taking in and I was still up when Nico said "I know you're still awake."

"Yeah I've been thinking, and I have a lot of questions."

"Shoot." He replied sounding a lot better than he had earlier that evening.

"Well, for starters what's our dad like?" I was scared of this question. It had been ringing in my head ever since I found out about being a daughter of Hades.

"He's not… loving, if that's what you're thinking. But it's always been different with me. He's always saying how he wishes Bianca had lived though. So maybe he'll like you better." Nico said. I hadn't expected a loving father. I'd never had one and Hades didn't bring to mind the loving father image anyway. So Nico's words didn't change much, but they gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, he would be better than my old family; just maybe.


	5. Sword Training With Friends

That day I had sword Practice. As a child of the big three that meant I trained with other children of the big three. So there we were me Nico, and Percy, all of us holding deadly weapons. Yay.

So far things had been good. Me and Nico got up went to breakfast and had a nice morning in general. Nico had seemed a little of kilter, like he was looking for someone, but I didn't ask. He then took me to the Hephaestus cabin to grab a weapon for me to use temporarily. He said that soon he would take me to the underworld so that Hades could have a sword like Nico's made for me. I wasn't sure how I felt about seeing Hades but, it couldn't go to bad, could it?

By the time we entered the arena Percy was already sitting in the stands sharpening his sword. He stood up when he heard us walk over.

"Hey about last night-"

"It's over, and I don't want to talk about it Percy" Nico said holding up a hand. At first I thought he was gesturing for Percy to stop talking but soon a sword appeared in his hand. It was two feet of pure black stygian iron; monster killing stuff. Unlike Percy's sword that seemed to give off a sort of glow, Nico's seemed to suck all the light from around it and emanated a cloud of darkness. It was awesome, and completely deadly, even to creatures of the underworld.

"Okay, I'm cool with that. Let's start. What do you think we should start with; you know something easy for Keirin?" Percy said pulling up his sword and coming down to join us in the center of the arena.

"What happened to going easy when you tried training me? Let's start with that disarming thing; where you twist the sword out of your opponent's hand." Nico said, getting an evil smile on his face. I was a little apprehensive but I wanted to prove myself to the two guys. After all I was the only daughter of the big three, I was on my own.

"Cool that should work." Percy said, nodding. Looking to me he said "Hold out your sword. Yeah just like that, and then I'll try to disarm you. It's a lot harder to do in a real combat situation but it's affective if you do it just right." Using his sword he caught mine and twisted it right out of my hand, just like he'd said he would. My sword clattered to the ground at my feet. Flipping it up with his foot, Percy picked up the sword and handed it to me hilt-first.

"Uh thanks" I said taking the sword and getting it back into a good grip. "Can I try now?"

"Yeah, let's go real speed; I'll try to go easy on you." He said winking. He started by slashing to my right witch I side stepped. We kept going at it for a while, I had tried multiple times to unarm him but I hadn't succeeded. Eventually Percy picked up the pace and I had to really work to keep up. After about another ten minutes of that I saw an opening and went for it. The tip of my sword hooked his and before either of us could blink, his sword clattered to the ground at his feet. Imitating his earlier moves I flipped up his sword with my foot, grabbed it and handed it back to him hilt first. He looked a little surprised and I have to admit I was surprised myself. I'd never handled a sword before let alone fought with one.

"Nice one Keirin". I knew that voice; had known it for nine years. But he wasn't supposed to be here. He was a mortal. But yet when I turned around there he was. My best friend, Ben Mavrel was standing at the end of the arena sword in hand. But he couldn't be! He was a mortal! I'd seen him prove that thousands of times! He didn't have any godly skill! He wasn't fast he couldn't swim very well and he could not raise the dead. Or at least I hoped not.

"BEN?" I asked staring at him mouth hanging open. He was right there walking towards me, golden sword in hand. I probably would have been more impressed by the sword, but I was still stuck on the fact that my best friend who I had thought was mortal was standing right in front of me now.

"Live and in person! Now don't I get a hug?" He asked giving me one of his huge grins.

"YES!" I said just before rushing in to give him a hug. Thankfully I'd dropped my sword in shock and he's dropped his when he saw me run towards him. He locked his arms around me, lifted me off the ground and spun me around until I was dizzy. When he finally let go I looked again just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I just then realized that Nico and Percy were staring at us like they had no clue what was going on.

"Ummm… you two know each other?" Percy said gesturing at Ben and me.

"Oh hey, Percy. Yeah, Keirin and I were like best friends in the mortal world. I had no Idea she was a half blood until Nico Iris messaged me." He said nodding to Nico. "Scared me half to death, didn't anyone ever tell you not to Iris message a guy when he's in the shower?" He added. We all laughed at that and the embarrassed look on Nico's face.

"Why'd you message Ben?" I asked him. There was no way he could have known that me and Ben and been friends. So maybe Ben was my half brother and Nico had messaged him to tell him and he's wanted to see me himself.

"I saw the pictures you had of him and you together in your bag and I thought that maybe it'd be nice for you to have friend at camp so… yeah, that was my good deed for the century." Nico said blushing. He could be really sweet sometimes.

"Well thanks, that was… awesome." I said trying to make him feel good with the awesome part. "But hey, Ben, who's your godly parent?" I asked. That question had been bugging me since he'd shown up.

"Umm, well, ha-ha, you're gona laugh when you hear this." He said ruffling his hair and looking nervously around the arena.

"What you're not my brother, are you?" I asked. I really didn't want to share a cabin with Ben, mainly because it would be way awkward to live with my best friend.

"NO! Ha-ha, I uh, I'm a son of Zeus." As he said the words thunder rumbled across the valley.

"Oh cool, so you'll be in sword training class with me!" I said. This was great! Ben and I could be closer than ever and we could do tons of cool stuff, like go monster hunting in the forest!

"Yeah that'll be great! Ha-ha…" He said doing that nervous thing where he ruffled his hair with his hands.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. If something was wrong I wanted to be there for him.

"You know the typical half-blood stuff. I've never met my dad, he gave me sword to make up for it but I still don't know about how I feel about him. You know." He said looking at me like I should understand. I didn't but I guessed that I would soon enough.

"Oh yeah" I said nodding.

"Hey guys, sword practice is over, and me and Nico have some stuff to talk about so why don't you guys head to lunch on your own k?" Percy said capping his sword-pen Riptide. Nico made his sword disappear and Ben turned his sword into a necklace and clasped it around his neck. I just lamely put mine into the weapon shed.

"Come on let's head to lunch." Ben said leading me out of the arena and down to the pavilion. I still looked at the scare in the marble. It was awesome.

"So, how's life at camp so far? How do you like capture the flag?" He asked me, as we sat down. We were sort of breaking the rules both sitting at the Zeus table but it was nice being together again.

"Um I haven't played capture the flag yet." I said. I was wondering what was so great with capture the flag.

"Oh it's awesome, we're playing it tonight. You'll love it." I was glad to hear it and hoped I was on Ben's team. I was looking forward to the games.


	6. Saved By An Arrow

"Nope, definitely too big" I said from under a layer of huge armor. Ben and I were in the Big House, trying on armor for the capture the flag game. So far almost everything we'd tried had been too large.

"How about this one" he said handing me a smaller sized breast plate once I had the other one off. It wasn't as big as the others had been and it looked like it might fit.

I pulled it on and Ben helped me fasten the straps. The first time I'd tried doing my own straps hadn't turned out well! After getting the armor on I looked at it more closely. It fit nicely and I felt pretty comfortable in it. It was bronze but had a sort of sheen to it.

We decided that I had enough armor on and went out to the pavilion. Everyone was gathered there, getting on armor, chatting about tactics, and for the Aphrodite kids doing make-up and hair. As we weaved through the people I caught sight of the Apollo kids stringing their bows and checking their quivers. One of them looked up and our eyes met briefly before one of his brothers called his name. I hurried to catch up to Ben, and we made our way to where Percy, Annabeth and Nico were talking. It looked like they were having a pretty heated conversation too, because Nico and Percy were giving each other the death stare while Annabeth looked ready to run if the ground starting shaking. I could understand her worries because when two children of the Big Three fight it can get very dangerous.

"Hey, hey, what are you guys yelling about?" Ben shouted, and moved in between them. He stood there until the two boys calmed down and got out of each other's faces.

"Well" Annabeth started nervously. "Chiron said that to make the game even we should have two Big Three kids on each team…" She said her voice trailing off. "And since I already have Nico and Percy on my team… that means you two have to be on the Ares team." She said with an apologetic smile on her face.

"That's cool, I was gonna have to be on their team anyway." Ben said with a smile. "Now at least I won't have to fight against Keirin. But you three are so going down." He said to Annabeth while laughing.

Before Annabeth could say anything back, just then Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" He called, His voice ringing off the marble columns. "The teams for tonight's game have been decided. Athena is leading the blue team, and has allied with Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Nico from the Hades Cabin. Ares is leading the red team and has allied with Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, Zeus, and Keirin from the Hades Cabin. You all know the rules; the creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battle field medic." He finished his list of rules and nodded heading off into the forest.

Ben and I grabbed red horse hair plumed helmets as Clarisse called "Red team, march!" and off we went into the trees. Even though we had tried to find the smallest shield, it was a pain dragging the thing along with me. The whole way I tripped and stumbled, thankful that Ben was there to catch me. Some of the Aphrodite campers whispered when they saw him holding me up and looked at us like we were going to start making out right there in the middle of the forest, but we ignored it like we'd done for years in the mortal world.

"I want Dionysus and Ares on the offensive!" Clarisse yelled at the mob of people in armor. "That means Demeter on the offense and Aphrodite you guys can cover border patrol. Ben, Keirin to me." She said summoning us over.

"What's up?" Ben asked Clarisse. I could practically feel the power flowing through her spear and whenever Ben got close to it I swear it started glowing more.

"You two, children of the Big Three, have power right?" She asked casually, looking more at her spear then us. She did it nonchalantly, but I could tell she'd seen the way it responded to Ben too.

"Well yeah…" I said not seeing exactly where this was going.

"I want you two to raid sneak to the flag and bring it back here without them even noticing that it's gone. You can shadow travel right?" She asked looking towards me.

"Umm, no. I haven't even learned how to summon a hellhound let alone shadow travel! But yeah, Nico might use that." I said trying to make up for my inexperience. I could see that a lot of Clarisse's plan had been based on me shadow traveling and her hopes had just been dashed.

"Fine, you two will just have to sneak there unnoticed, the normal way. I'll attack with one huge wave to confuse them and keep their attention, while you two come around the back and take out any guards there to get the flag. Got it?" She finished her master plan.

"Clarisse," another daughter of Ares came up. "The troops are ready. I've created a second group to attack just to make sure to keep the blue team occupied and so that they don't suspect anything." She finished giving her report.

"Hmm, very good, yes that's a good idea Jenna. That's all. You two get going." She said finally turning to me and Ben. "Don't mess up" She said, and ran off to join her troops.

"Good luck." Said the one named Jenna, who was smaller and a bit nicer then Clarisse.

"Yeah same to you, and be careful." Ben said, waving as she walked away. He watched after her until she was out of sight amongst the others.

"You have a crush on Jenna!" I said in a sing-song voice as we walked off into a thicker swath of trees. We were heading west for a bit and then were going to start heading south to where the blue team would have their flag.

"I do not!" He whispered back. We were keeping our voices down, because we were nearing the other team's border.

"You so do, but we'll talk about it later right now, let's kick some blue butt!" I whispered back as we edged out into the clearing the creek ran through.

We stepped out and were soon confronted by two sons of Hephaestus, both about Ben's size, which was bad news for me. They came towards us squaring up to whoever was in front of them. I had to crane my neck up to see the guy coming towards me, but I didn't need to move at all to see his sword. It was three feet of solid bronze, with the sharpest edge I think I'd ever seem. I held my weapon a little higher and Ben's golden sword _Twister_ formed in his hand.

Before any of us could blink, Ben charged the guy standing before him and they went off in a flurry of clanging swords. The guy in front of me lunged and I sidestepped just barely missing becoming a shish kabob. He struck again and this time I blocked our swords clanging together painfully. This guy was trained and I wasn't and I was losing strength fast. After a few more blocks her caught my arm at a chink in my armor and drew blood. I kept fighting but soon he'd knocked me to the ground and drawn blood four more times, each cut deeper than the last. I could still hear Ben and the other guy fighting, and hoped Ben was winning.

But I had bigger worries. The guy who'd knocked me over was advancing again sword raised as if he was about to finish me off. And he was going to. He raised his sword high above his head and just as he started his downward arc, something flashed and a huge clang sounded from his helmet. He staggered away and fell, unconscious from the arrow that had collided with his helmet. That was when I notice the guy I'd seen earlier coming towards me, his bow dropped on the ground behind him. He was just leaning over me, telling me that I would be alright that he would bandage my cuts, and I was thinking about how his blonde hair looked like gold in the sun at this angle, when my world went all black.


	7. Sore Shoulder For You

When I finally opened my eyes everything was fuzzy, but I could see a figure sitting in a chair beside the bed I was in. When he saw my eyes open he stood up and walked over, crouching down at the side of the bed.

"Thank the gods, she's awake" Another person said coming to stand next to the guy already looking over me. I could tell from the voice that it was Nico.

"I told you, it was only a matter of time." The first one said looking me in the eyes. "Can you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?" He asked. He spoke the words slowly as if he wasn't sure that I would understand.

I nodded "Where?" I started and then broke off in a coughing fit. My mouth felt like someone had super vacuumed all the moisture out of it.

"Here drink this." The strange guy held a glass up to my lips and slowly dribbled the cool liquid down my throat. It tasted sweet and sour at the same time, singing on my taste buds. It was like strawberries coated in chocolate, in drink form.

"Tha - chough - thanks" I said. My vision was clearing now and I could look around the room. There was the chair where the guy had been sitting; a bunch of armor that I realized was the armor I had been wearing. Other than that the rest of the room consisted of the bed I was laying on and a small bedside table which the blond guy now set the empty glass upon.

"Of course. Do you feel well enough to stand?" He asked me. It was then that I realized that he was the same guy I'd seen in the pavilion I'd seen with his brothers; the same one who'd saved my life.

"Yes, I think so." I replied. "You saved me; back in the forest." I said looking into his eyes as he helped me to stand; they were golden. I wasn't very sure footed and ended up leaning heavily on his shoulder for support.

"Yes, and he's luck I came just in time to shadow travel the two of you here. I was out for about two days, but you've been out even longer." Nico said butting in and taking the other guys place supporting me. He made sure that with the way he was standing he was between me and the unknown blonde guy.

"Thanks, Nico." I said to Nico, shrugging away from him. I was starting to feel stronger and wanted to talk more with the blonde guy. "My name's Keirin Larson, daughter of Hades, what's yours?" I asked him leaning around Nico to make eye contact.

"I'm Mike, Mike Ollander. I'm a son of Apollo." He said avoiding my gaze. I wondered if it was the fact that Nico was right there with us or if Nico had said something to him earlier.

"Keirin, you need to see Chiron about… what happened in the forest." Nico said hesitating when he mentioned it. I could understand why. I'd almost died, if not for Mike I would have.

"Nico, hey Nico, Percy and I need you for sword training!" Ben said running over. When he spotted me he tried to rush towards me to give me a hug, and then thought better of it. "Keirin, your better, thank the gods! I'm sorry for leaving you, but after the third day, Chiron told me to go back to training. I'm so glad you okay I've been feeling terrible about letting you walk into that trap! Thank the gods for Mike! He saved you in the forest and he's been taking care of you in the Apollo cabin, he's a miracle!" Ben said, and instead of hugging me, hugged Mike. Mike looked really uncomfortable and slowly inched away once Ben let go. "But Nico we really do need you to train, Mike can take care of Keirin, we're working on the whole going up against two people tactic. So it would help if we had more than two people."

"Well okay, let's go. Just make sure she doesn't over work herself, Mike." Nico said, turning away to head towards the arena after Ben.

We walked in silence towards the big house after that. I started to wobble and eventually Mike had to let me lean on his shoulder again. He was about three inches taller than me and for someone who uses a bow most of the time he was really strong. His blonde hair was a shade of gold and shone in the sun. His eyes were a shade lighter than his hair and were really set off by the blonde curls framing his face. His nose was slightly upturned, just enough to be cute, and his lips were just the right shade of red.

"Thanks for saving me, twice. I really appreciate it, I mean; I would be dead right now if it weren't for you." I said, breaking the silence.

"Don't mention it." He said, and kept walking, not saying anything more. I didn't understand how someone could save a person twice and then act like it had been nothing. So I tried again.

"You were on the blue team, but you shot him anyway. That's not something you see every day." I said trying to break through to the guy who had been brave enough to save me.

"I guess, but what did you expect me to do? Stand there and watch him kill you?" He asked. "And I'm a son of Apollo of course I would heal you, that's what we do." He said with a glance in my direction.

"But you could have acted like you'd never seen it and walked away. You could have told one of your siblings that you were sick from shadow travel, which you were I know, and they would have taken care of me. So yeah, you're kind of a hero to me." I said looking him in the eye again. I really owed this guy my life I wanted him to know how much that meant to me.

"Well," I swear I could see him blushing now. "You're welcome I guess." He said and quickly turned his eyes forward to the big house. He helped me up the stairs and onto the porch. He knocked on the door and we waited until Chiron opened it.

"Well come in. I'm glad to see that you're finally awake Keirin." He said smiling at me. I could tell it was forced and that there were other things on his mind.

"Uh, hi," I said still leaning on Mike's shoulder. "Can I maybe sit down 'cause I'm sort of getting light headed." I asked.

"Of course" Chiron said, pointing to a chair. "You too, Mike." He added with a glance at Mike who was still standing next to my chair. He went across the room and grabbed a chair pulling it up next to mine.

"So, I'm sure you both know why I've called you here." He said giving us each pointed looks. His forced smile was gone, a deep frown taking up residence on his face. "We need to discuss, what happened in the forest during the capture the flag game."

My eyes went wide as I tried to remember what had happened. Ben and I had been chosen to go and retrieve the flag. We were just about to sneak past enemy lines when something had happened. There had been to guys really big guys, like Ben sized. Ben had taken one and the other had charged me… after that it all was a blur. All except for the memory of Mike's arrow saving me, and the sound of his voice telling me that I'd be okay. THAT I remembered. It was just a small thing but it was there and it meant a lot to me.

"Well it was, James and Daren, but it was James that attacked Keirin." Mike said, glancing at me to see my reaction. I hadn't known the two, except that one of them had tried to kill me.

"Ummm… I don't remember much. I remember being attacked and then it gets a little blurry until when Mike shot the arrow and saved me." I said, nodding to agree with what Mike had already said.

"Yes, that was the deed of a true hero, Mike. Are you two sure that when James swung downward, that he was aiming for Keirin?" Chiron asked. I could tell that he really didn't want to believe that one of his campers would murder another even with the evidence staring him in the face.

"Yes" Mike and I both said at the same time. Mike cast his eyes downward and looked… almost guilty.

"Do you have any idea why he might have done this?" Chiron asked him. "He hadn't said anything to you, had he?"

"No. He wouldn't have. He would have known that I wouldn't, I don't murder." He said shaking his head sadly. I wondered why Chiron thought that James might have talked with Mike about killing me.

"No you don't." Chiron said with a sigh. "We're done here; you may go back to your cabins. Can Keirin go back to the Hades cabin, or does she still need to stay with you?" Chiron asked, getting up and moving towards the door. Mike and I followed; me once again leaning heavily on his shoulder.

"Um, I'm not sure. I'd like to check her ankle again before making any decisions." Mike said looking at me. He didn't even have to turn his head; mine was pretty close to it.

"Very, well; thank you for talking to me. I'll see you both at dinner." Chiron said waving before he closed the door.

As we walked back to the Apollo cabin, I thought about what would happen at dinner. For one thing I still wanted to ask Mike about how well he had known James. For another, there was the fact that I'd missed five whole days while unconscious. And to top it off I might not even get to stay in my own cabin.

When we reached the Apollo cabin it was pretty quiet, with only one of Mike's sisters hanging around. He had to help me to the back room of the cabin, where they put all the wounded demigods. There they had the same type of tall examining table that you saw in doctors' offices. He helped me up onto one, and started looking at my ankle.

He took my ankle in his hands carefully, trying not to hurt me. He slowly moved his fingers over it until I cried out in pain.

"Well, it's definitely broken. Not too bad though, so you can go back to your own cabin but you'll have to wear a brace and use crutches." He said turning to a large closet. He opened the doors and pulled out two huge crutches and an ankle brace. He fit the brace around my foot and leg, strapping it carefully over my ankle. He helped me stand and handed me the crutches. They were huge, almost taller than me, at a whopping five feet.

"Uh, not gonna work." I said pointing out the obvious.

"Yeah… and we don't have any smaller ones… I'm not sure where they went… But for right now you'll either have to keep hobbling around on someone's shoulder or stay in bed, because weight on that ankle is definitely a no." He said, putting back the crutches and letting me lean on his shoulder.

"I'm NOT staying in bed!" I said just to make sure he understood that. I'd been in bed for five days, unconscious, I wasn't gonna lay around anymore.

"Someone's gonna have a sore shoulder then." He said, a smile on his face, thinking of whoever was gonna get stuck with that job.

"Well someone better get me back to the Hades cabin than." I said, giving him a devious smile. It took him a while but eventually he got it and his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh really? Well then, let's get going." He said with a sigh. He didn't seem to upset and I got the feeling that he was going to enjoy not having to train for a while.

So off we headed to the Hades cabin.


	8. Going Home The Hard Way

"Ugg" I groaned, slamming my hand down on my alarm clock. It was the day after I'd woken up and it seemed like even after being unconscious for five days all I wanted to do was sleep.

"Do you need help getting to sword practice?" Nico said from across the room. He was trying to be nice, but I knew the real motivation for helping me. He didn't like Mike, and tried at any chance he got to make life hard on him.

"No, Mike will be here in about…" I said looking towards my clock. "Oh crap! He'll be here in like five minutes!" I rushed to my closet and headed with my clothes to the bathroom to change, when I heard a knock at the door.

"Uh, hi is Keirin ready?" Mike asked. "Oh uh, I guess not um should I like wait out here?" He asked, noticing that I was still in my PJs. He looked at me and then looked down; wringing his hands while trying to slowly scoot away from Nico's glare.

"She'll be awhile why don't you-" Nico started.

"Wait in here; I'll be out in a minute." I said smiling at Mike. "Nico you're already ready, go ahead without me, I wouldn't want you to be late." I said, sweetening up my smile just for Nico.

"Whatever." He growled. He walked toward the door, making sure to practically run Mike over on the way. "Just, don't get any funny ideas Mike; you're in my cabin." Nico said staring Mike down. I was sort of happy when Mike straitened up and squared his shoulders. He was actually just as tall as Nico when he didn't slouch.

"I wouldn't dream of it, bye." Mike replied slamming the door once Nico had walked away. "So I guess Nico hates me now?" He asked smiling shyly at me.

"Um yeah" I said laughing. If Nico didn't hate Mike then he at least didn't like him. "Hey, just chill, sit down don't touch anything though because Nico took down the cursed rubies to clean them and I'm not sure where he put them." I said laughing as Mike got a scared look on his face. I went into the bathroom and changed as quickly as I could, making sure to put my hair up extra nice because I would be with Mike the whole day.

"You ready now?" He asked as I came out. He was sitting on my bed and looked sort of out of place in the dark cabin. He was all gold and sunlight while the Hades cabin was dark and shadowed. It was a nice contrast though.

"Yeah, just wait a minute." I said hobbling over to put on my brace. It was okay if I hopped around my room but if I wanted to go anywhere out of it I needed someone to help me. "K, let's go." I said waving at him to come over and help me up.

"So sword training right?" He asked looking down at the copy of my schedule I'd made him. We'd be going to my morning training and then after lunch we'd go to his training.

"Yep" I said opening the door to the cabin. We walked out and I shut the door behind us. We reached the arena just as Percy was starting and I had to hurry to my seat in the stands. Mike and I watched for a while until Percy said that Mike should join them in training.

"Yeah, you have two good legs still right?" Percy said with a laugh. "Or do you only use a bow and arrows to save girls?" He said getting laughs from even Nico.

"Well I left my sword-sword in my cabin, but I have my bow that doubles as a blade. Would that work?" He asked getting an evil smile on his face.

"Well let's see it!" Ben shouted up into the stands. Mike stood up, hummed a note and out of thin air his bow appeared in his hand, and a quiver over his shoulder. He clicked a part of the bow and a small sharp blade appeared along the top half edge of the bow.

"Oooooo" Nico said feigning fear. "Let's see if you can use it." He said. In guy talk I guessed that meant "I challenge you to prove that your man enough to hang out with my sister" or at least that's what I got.

"Bring it on" Mike said, hopping down from the stands. He nodded to me and said "Don't worry; I'll try not to hurt him too bad!" He laughed as he walked over and squared up with Nico.

"Okay guys you know the rules," Percy said coming to stand by the two guys. "No maiming or killing. Once someone is on the ground the fighting is over!" He shouted. "Ready, FIGHT!" He yelled and the two attacked each other.

There was a lot of metal on metal, and some fancy moves on Nico's side. Mike lunged and Nico blocked; Nico slashed and Mike back stepped. It kept up like that for a while until you could tell that Nico was tiring out. He wasn't lifting his sword quite as high and his slashes were slowing. Mike saw an opening and went for it; swinging his leg around to knock Nico to the ground. Mike stood over him and pointed his sword down at Nico's throat. "Do you give up?" He said lowering his sword just an inch.

"Yeah" Nico said. Mike stepped away and Nico stood up, shaking the dust off of his armor. Mike pressed his bow again and the blade retracted.

"Nice moves… hey how do you feel about training with us? You know, just till you don't have to help Keirin around everywhere." Percy said walking up to Mike. I could tell he was thinking the same thing as me; there was more to Mike then he let on.

"Uh, cool. That would uh, be cool. Does that mean Keirin has to actually do stuff in my ancient Greek class?" He asked getting that evil smile again.

"Oh yeah" Ben said laughing.

Right then the conch horn sounded telling us that it was time for breakfast. Mike came up into the stands and helped me down. He made his bow disappear again by singing another note. We headed down to the pavilion laughing and joking around the whole way.

Breakfast went well and we headed off to the rest of my morning classes. I failed at archery as usual even with Mike helping me. It was really sweet stood behind me and guided both of my hands. The arrow went flying off into the trees but Mike smiled and laughed that I'd gotten almost a foot closer this time. Canoeing went okay though the naiads kept flirting with Mike till I told them to go tell it to a barnacle, because Mike has better things to do. It was hilarious until one of them knocked me out of the canoe and Mike had to jump in and help me because I couldn't swim with my leg brace on. Then I had orchestra, which Mike actually really enjoyed. I didn't know that you could play Lady Gaga on the cello but Mike did. We eventually had lunch and then went to his classes. He had band then, which I was also in so it worked out with me in the low brass section on my trombone, and Mike playing his alto sax loud and clear. I failed once again in archery, but Mike told me it was different, this was ADVANCED archery. Ancient Greek went well; it was one of my favorite classes at camp. I even got to watch Mike scramble up the climbing wall, just to end up with his shirt torched. I was practically in tears from laughter by the time he got down, which he didn't very much appreciate.

By the time the horn for dinner was sounded we had met up with Percy, Annabeth, Ben, and Nico again. Dinner was crazy loud, and I could barley here Nico sitting next to me at the Hades table. That was the only time me and Mike were apart aside from sleeping. It was cool though, because after being beat by Mike, I think Nico finally accepted him.

Once dinner was over we all headed down to the amphitheater for the sing along. Mike helped me there and I got to sit next to him the whole time. We laughed and sang and over all had a great night. We were in the middle of the last song when the flames rippled. They twisted and turned until they formed the shape of a man in a suit.

"Hades, to what do we owe this unexpected visit?" Chiron called up to the form from his wheel chair. I could tell he was shocked, but he kept a calm demeanor.

"My daughter," The strange man who was apparently Hades, bellowed, "is what brings me here. I have heard that one of Hephaestus's sons tried to kill her! I have come to take her to the underworld where she will be safe." As he said it, he turned to see me, at which time I was sitting very close to Mike and holding his hand. "And as far away from him as possible" He shouted pointing at Mike, and said "him" like it was a curse.

"Uh…" I could hear Mike stammer beside me. He was freaking out under Hades stare, and was slowly inching away and pulling his hand out of mine.

I tightened my grip on his hand pulling him closer. "HE happens to be the person I owe my life to." I said standing up, which was a bit awkward with only one good leg.

"Keirin" Nico said coming over to stand beside me. He had a bag packed full of stuff he would need; he had known that Hades was coming. "Save yourself the pain, and just come on." He said grabbing my free hand to pull me along with him. I didn't budge.

"Keirin, you're coming to the underworld!" Hades bellowed again. I couldn't believe that I'd ever thought that there was a chance that he would be better than my old family. I wasn't his daughter any more than I was my stepdad's daughter.

"Over my dead body!" I shouted. Everyone around stared at me, thinking that Hades would vaporize me on the spot. I knew he wouldn't, not here in the middle of camp. So I stood firm, my back strait and stared Hades in eyes.

"Well it is the underworld" he said and for the second time since I'd come to camp, everything went black and all I could here was wind sweeping past me.


	9. Home school in the Underworld

For the second time in three days I woke up with people standing over me. I wasn't in the Apollo cabin though, I was in the underworld. I was pretty sure I wasn't dead, because I was lying on something solid and I remembered who I was. I knew the people standing over me; it was Nico and the man who was supposedly my father. I looked up with a glare at them; Nico at least had the sense to look guilty, while my father, Hades just stared back at me with the same anger.

"Well, took you long enough." Hades said moving away from the bed to lean against the wall casually as if this happened all the time. With a dad like Hades and a son like Nico I guess it might. I sat up in the bed and looked around. We were in a small room, but I could tell that it was part of a much bigger building. There was no ceiling; it was just open to the huge cavern. I stood up and wobbled a bit, but I held myself steady on a small bedside table.

"Yeah, mind getting me a drink?" I said back putting all the sass I had into it. Sure he was a god, but I was his daughter and he had majorly ticked me off.

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE-" Hades began yelling at me. I instinctively cringed waiting for the strike I knew would come.

"Stop, you're scaring her! Gods, she thinks you're gonna hit her!" Nico shouted stepping in front of me. He turned to me and grabbed my wrists gently, removing them from where they were positioned to cover my face.

"WHAT? Hit her?" Hades asked."Why would I hit her?" He roared. The cave shook and I could only imagine the quake Hades was causing above ground.

"Keirin, its okay don't worry, it's okay. Hades won't hurt you, he's not like that." Nico said. He had concern in his eyes as he looked at me. "Keirin did- were you hit before?" Nico asked.

~ Flash-Back ~

I looked away to hide the tears. I didn't want to have this conversation, not now, not ever. But it came up and it's not going away until I answer. I feel myself sinking into my memories. My home life hadn't been terrible only because of how my family treated me like a monster; it was how my father had beaten me. I was always afraid: when I came home from a hard day at school, I had to deal with him, as my mother pretended not to notice. My step-sister had just laughed.

There was one day, the worst. I'd had a terrible time in school, missed a project, at least two home work assignments and had been practically drowned alive in dodge balls in Gym class. After a ride home with the same jerks on the bus as always, I got home. I was walking towards my home, when I saw my step-father's truck parked in the driveway already. He'd gotten home early. Why? He'd been fired, causing him to be fuming in anger by the time I stepped in the door. He was on the phone with the school, I could tell from the conversation. He hung up after a few more minutes and climbed the stairs to where my bedroom was; where I was.

"OPEN UP!" He said banging his terrible fist on the door. He didn't even try the knob. He knew it would be locked.

"What?" I asked, coming to the door and opening it up. For that I got a slap in the face. I screamed then and that earned me another slap, to the other side of my face.

"Hey!" another slap. "What did-" another slap. "Stop it!" Slap. "OW!" Slap. I stepped back and tried to slam the door in his face but he was bigger than me by a lot. He pushed it open, knocking me to the wall.

He stepped close and grabbed my neck. "What did you say?" he asked. His voice wasn't yelling, but I could hear the tremble of anger in it. I was frozen from fear, and didn't answer.

He slapped me. "I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!" he thundered.

"I'm sorry" I whimpered trying to slowly pull lose from his grasp. Apparently that hadn't been what he'd wanted to hear and he slapped me again.

"Hello?" I then heard the front door down stairs open and my mom come in. My step-father turned his head to the door way as if she would suddenly appear there. His slight distraction was just enough. I slipped from his hold and cowered in the far corner of my room. He turned on me with his hand raised but thought better of it. He turned and left shutting my door as he went down stairs to greet my mother like nothing had happened.

~ Flash-Back ~

I never told her. I never told anyone. The memory still keeps me awake at night. I cry to myself and shudder still remembering how much make up it took to cover up all the bruises and cuts.

"Keirin, it's alright, no one's going to hurt you!" Nico pulled me in to hug and I cried on his shoulder for a while. Hades came back into the room. Funny I didn't remember him leaving. But he was holding a glass of water in his hand and set it down on the small bedside table I had been leaning on. He had a look on his face that showed no emotion; but I could tell that it was just a wall to hide the anger.

"Your step-father will suffer the worst eternal punishment imaginable. He will wish for the mercy of Tartarus, his torture will be so cruel." Hades quietly raged. I didn't stop him. I had hoped for exactly that, for almost my whole life. While other twelve year old girls wished for make-up and clothes, I wished for my step-father's death and torture. I thought back then that I was insane, especially when I could see it all so clearly; the fields of asphodel, Elysium in the background, and my step-father in the fields of punishment. I'd had dreams of a man in a robe stitched from the souls of the dead, standing in front of my step-father deciding on his torture. _The future_, I often hoped.

"He- I- that would- yes," I said finally. "I hope so." I whispered into Nico's shirt.

"Hades!" an unknown voice yelled from somewhere farther into the palace of the lord of the dead. It was a women's voice, I could tell that much. She sounded sort of angry or impatient.

"Persephone…" Hades groaned turning to head out the door. "Nico stay in here with your sister. I'll come and get you both before dinner." He said over his shoulder as the door shut behind him.

For about an hour Nico and I sat on the edge of the bed I'd been laying on earlier. We sat close enough to give each other some comfort but we had our space. We didn't talk but we didn't need to. I think Nico was still shocked, and I just wasn't up to talking; I had shared my deepest secret with him and he had helped me through it. He was my family and he would be there for me.

Eventually Hades returned. He wasn't alone though; there was a tall woman following closely behind him. She had long dark hair that curled as if it were weightless. She was wearing a colorful dress that billowed around her. The colors stood out boldly and not just because she was so ghostly pale. They were moving, swaying, shifting, like a field of never ending wildflowers. She looked at Nico coldly, and then turned her gaze to me. It became calculating, like she was trying to measure me, and she what size flower dress I would fit. Yeah right, she was gonna get me in one of those things!

"So… this is the girl." She spat out the word girl like it was disgusting, or painful to say. I guess she had the right though. I mean I was her husband's daughter by another woman.

I decided to show respect and try to get on her good side. "Lady Persephone," I said, curtsying deeply. If I'd been wearing a skirt or dress it would have looked a lot better. "It's an honor."

"Well… I would hope so." She stumbled at first, but managed to pull it together with a witty comment. I liked that.

"Yes, we should be eating, why don't we head to the dining room?" Hades said, trying to avoid conflict. For the god of the dead you'd think that dealing with his wife and children would be easy compared to dealing with death all the time, but Hades seemed awkward standing in the door way wringing his hands. In that moment he reminded me of Nico; in control with everything from sword fighting to zombies but put him in a room full of people and he shrank into a wallflower.

We headed down winding corridors past armed guards from all time periods. There was even a knight from the round table there, standing in his armor, and sword on his hip. My personal favorite though was the soldier with the grenade launcher. We finally reached a room in the center of the palace. Its center was filled with a huge marble table with benches on each side and thrones at the one end. Persephone and Hades each sat in one of the two thrones leaving me and Nico to sit together on one of the benches.

Hades clapped and skeletal servers melted from the walls carrying trays of food that smelled almost as good as it tasted. Persephone was a vegetarian end everything she had looked amazing, while hades had a steak, cooked so rare it was practically raw. Nico and I were served the basic camp half-blood type meal. Nico dug in but I was reluctant; I remembered what had happened to Persephone after just six pomegranate seeds so I wasn't taking any chances.

"You may eat. I haven't cursed it. You will be able to leave when you please." Hades said looking down the table – if you could call something that big a table – at me.

"Um thank you." I said awkwardly. We finished quickly, neither Nico nor I leaving a scrap of food on our plates. Hades and Persephone didn't really need to eat and sort of just sat there watching; it was a bit unnerving.

"Now, we must discus how you will be staying here in the Underworld." Hades said. He clapped his hands together again and the skeletal servers melted into the room to clear the table. "I'm thinking you stay here for the school year and then camp half-blood in the summer." He said. I was surprised he was even thinking of letting me go back to camp after see me and Mike.

"Wait, does that include trips to grave yards around the world? And I still need to train Keirin to shadow travel." Nico said raising his hand like he was in school.

"Yes, you will be allowed to take a few trips to the surface, together of course. But I will be taking over Keirin's training." Hades said.

"I would like to teach her too." Persephone spoke up. I was shocked that she agreed to us staying here in the first place let alone, requesting to teach me. "You know, womanly stuff, be the mother figure." She said shocking me again. She had crossed the line with the whole "womanly" line. I would take a day of hot sweaty hand to hand combat over shopping any day.

"No! I will not have you softening her up! She will be a warrior, not your doll!" Hades said, with a look of disgust on his face. Maybe he was imagining me in a dress. I'll admit it, I liked feeling pretty, but I always felt awkward and uncomfortable when it came to style; fighting and training came naturally.

"Fine, then she can't stay in the Underworld." Persephone said giving Hades a look that said "Now we're playing hard-ball". Hades gave her his most withering stare, but after a few minutes you could tell she wasn't giving in so Hades relented.

"Fine, you can spend mornings training with me and then in the evenings you will have lessons with Persephone." He said with a sigh. "Nico and I will train in the evenings. You may do whatever in the mornings; I doubt you want lessons on how to be "womanly"" Hades said with air quotes around "womanly".

"It's settled, then. You will have one month with us until summer starts then." Persephone said smiling. I could already imagine the torture. She would probably even force me into a corset. I was doomed.


	10. Surprise Visit

"KEIRIN" Nico shouted banging on my door. Why did I tell him about my alarm clock "accidentally" getting smashed? Ever since then he'd made it his job to wake me up every morning, just in time for formal breakfast with Persephone; yay.

"UGG" I growled at him. I took a shower then headed to my closet. It was filled with cloths; all chosen by Persephone. I picked out one of the more sane ones; a light blue strapless day dress. I slipped it on, and zipped it up. I did my hair and slipped on my shoes; a pair of light blue heels; Persephone's idea, all the way. I headed down to breakfast in my outfit, tripping down the stairs almost ten times.

"Keirin, what a nice choice!" Persephone beamed at me when she saw me in the dress. She had the table set for breakfast with all the china imaginable. I sat down at the seat on my father's right. He came in minutes later. I could tell Persephone had gotten to him too because he was wearing his formal suit, the one stitched from the souls of the dead. Nico was even dressed up. And it was only breakfast.

Today was our day off, with the exception of breakfast. We trained all week except for Sundays. I was planning on spending my day Iris messaging Mike. I couldn't wait.

Persephone took her seat next to Hades. "So Nico what are your plans?" Persephone asked. She and Nico had never gotten along too well, but she had a soft spot for Heroes to begin with. She was putting forward an effort to be nicer.

As he awkwardly took his seat beside mine, tripping in his dress shoes, he said "Well… I was thinking about going to New Orleans…" His one true love was New Orleans grave yards. Nico still found it a bit awkward; talking to Persephone and was hesitant about responding.

I picked up my fork and took a bite of scrambled Stymphalian Death Bird eggs. "Keirin?" She said, turning a questioning look my way. She was enjoying our stepmother-stepdaughter lessons while I felt a little awkward still. But hey, I had to be willing to meet her half way.

"Um, well I was thinking about Iris messaging some friends from camp." I said, giving Nico a look that said not to say anything. He knew that the only person I was really going to message was Mike; maybe Ben but definitely Mike.

He gave me a look back that said some not so nice things. "You mean Iris messaging Mike!" He said, throwing me to the wolves. We had made a bet a few days ago and I had won, so ever since then he had been looking for a way to get back at me.

"Hmm… is that the young man who was with you at camp when I brought you here?" Hades asked. He was getting that "protective father" look.

I jumped to the defensive. "Well yes! He's my friend! And he saved my life!" I said defensively. I didn't like when Nico and Hades ganged up on Mike so I always stepped up to defend him.

Persephone turned from her food to join in the conversation. "Oh you have a boyfriend! How sweet! You simply must bring him to meet us sometime!" Persephone gushed.

"Yes, I'd like to talk to him…" Hades said. I had a feeling he was the type of father who cleaned his gun while talking to his daughter's boyfriend.

Persephone being ever helpful said "You should bring him here! Tonight, for dinner! Show him how you shadow travel!" Persephone beamed at her great idea. I could tell my father was hooked by the chance of me proving myself by shadow traveling to the mortal world and back.

"But, he has training, and he wasn't told before… and…" I sputtered off running out of reasons. I was excited for the chance to see Mike but the underworld was no place for a son of Apollo… But maybe he would be fine and would make it out like Orpheus had. He would be here as a guest.

Hades was thinking, as if going through all the guns he could imagine, picking witch one he would intimidate Mike with. "Yes… As soon as you're done here I want you to shadow travel to camp. You may stay there for lunch and then you will bring your friend to the underworld." Hades said. At least I would get some time at camp away from all the death and torture of the underworld.

The rest of the meal went in silence. Nico smiling to himself at the idea of Mike in the underworld, Hades quietly planning Mike's torture, Persephone was imagining the dinner she would plan, and I was silently dreading and anticipating Mike's visit. Breakfast was over all too quickly and it was time to shadow travel.

Hades began the dutiful teacher roll, and as if reading from a test form said "Now, remember, you might be a bit tired when you get there but that doesn't mean you have to go and let him dote on you. And don't forget to warn him about the whole chance that he might puke after shadow traveling for the first time. And remember that the most important things to think about are the smallest details of where you're going…" He went on and on about what to think about while shadow traveling and how it would be harder to get out of the underworld then in and such.

"YES DAD!" I said. I was still nervous, but the excitement of seeing Mike again was overriding the fear. I couldn't wait to see his face, his eyes his smile; here his voice, his laugh, and the way he hummed whenever he got bored.

Feeling that we were even now, Nico decided to help me out. "Tell Percy I said hi." Nico said pulling me away from Hades' lecture. "It's time to go, just imagine the camp and what you love most about it and you'll be fine." He said sending me off with a smile.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes thinking over and over in my head _Camp Half Blood, Long Island; Camp Half Blood, Long Island. _I imagined the sword training arena; the place I imagined Percy and Ben would be right then. In an instant I seemed to be flying at a million miles an hour, zooming through space. When I opened my eyes I was there, in the middle of the arena; Ben and Percy to my right in the middle of a training session.

As I caught my breath, I looked over at the fight. They were going at it pretty intensely and it took more than a few minutes for Ben to look over and catch my eye. When he did he dropped his sword and stared. He was lucky that Percy was on top of his game and stopped the deadly arc of his down swing just in time.

Ben stared for quite a while before he spoke. "Keirin, is that you?" He said coming to stand in front of me. He kept blinking and rubbing his eyes as if he didn't trust that they were working right.

"Live and in the flesh; now don't I get a hug?" I said, imitating the words he'd said to me the day he'd come to camp to see me about a month ago.

He didn't even say anything before he was rushing over his arms outstretched. He surrounded me in a lung-crushing hug, lifting me up and spinning me around. Just before I thought I would pass out from dizziness, he set me back on my feet. It was the most amazing feeling after spending three weeks in the underworld.

"Thank the gods! I've missed you so much!" Ben said. He stepped back to get a better look at me, his eyes going over every inch, seeing if my visit in the underworld had changed me.

Percy looked as if he were remembering the underworld and imagining me there. "Hey Keirin, how's the underworld been?" Percy said coming over. He capped his sword Riptide, returning it to pen form.

I could have given quite a few answers to that question. "Great! Well… except for Persephone. She has this crazy idea that she need to teach me how to be more feminine." I said, with air quotes around "Feminine".

"Oh gods, Keirin," Ben said breaking out laughing. "You being feminine? No offense but… have monkeys started flying or something?" He cracked up laughing again, and Percy tried to hide a smile.

I couldn't help but agree. I had never been one to dress up and forget about makeup. The only thing I could manage was conceal-er stuff. "Yeah, I know right? But anyway, I'm here on an urgent mission." I said, getting all serious. "Oh and Percy, Nico says hi." I added remembering Nico's last words.

"You've got to see Mike first! He's been going insane; telling Chiron he needs a quest to go rescue you from the underworld!" Ben said, struggling serious along with me. He picked up his sword from where he'd dropped it and returned it to necklace form.

I thought back to my days at camp with Mike. "He has canoeing now… if I hurry up I can meet him there!" I said over my shoulder as I dashed out of the arena.

I ran out into the main clearing where all the cabins were and sped my way down to the lake. And there he was. Lifting his canoe out of the water, he hadn't noticed me yet. I stood and watched him for a while. He lifted his oars out of the small boat, setting them in the sand. He drug the canoe the rest of the way on shore and up past the tide line, where he neatly laid it down beside all the others. He placed his oars next to it and turned back towards the water to check that he hadn't forgotten anything.

I walked over to him. I crept up behind him, and standing on my tip-toes I placed my hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?" I whispered in his ear. I had to reach pretty far, he was considerably taller then I was. His blonde hair was tussled from the wind on the lake and he didn't have his shirt on. Needless to say I liked the look.

He sucked in a gasp of air. "Keirin?" He asked. Before I could answer he turned around slipping my grasp and grabbing my hands in his. "It is you! Oh Keirin you're back I can't believe it! Oh this is great!" He said. He let go of my hands and pulled me close in a warm hug. He held me for a while and rested his chin on my head, "Oh I'm so glad you're back. I thought you were gone with Hades and- and- Chiron wouldn't let me save you. I told him and told him; "I need to see the oracle! A quest to save Keirin!" But he wouldn't let me go! He said that as your father, Hades could take you to the underworld whenever he wanted to! I was so worried-"

I felt so safe wrapped in his arms, head resting against his chest. "Mike, Mike, its okay! I'm here now! Don't worry I'm fine! We need to talk though." I said reluctantly pulling out of his hug. It was time to get down to business and tell him about his trip to the underworld.

He was overjoyed, you could tell from his expression. "There's so much to talk about! Camp hasn't changed much but there's this prophecy that's supposed to be about someone at camp and it's supposed to be the next great prophecy!" He said. Prophecy? What did that mean? Was he part of it?

At his words about a prophecy, I remembered Nico's words; _daughter of death_. Who else could that be?


	11. Here we go Again

As Mike and I walked toward the pavilion for lunch, he told me how things at camp were going. The Ares cabin currently held the laurels for capture the flag, Chiron was holding an archery contest which Mike was sure he could win, and Ben and Jena the daughter of Ares we'd played capture the flag with were going out. I was super happy about the last part and Mike said that we'd see them after lunch in the Zeus cabin. I wasn't sure why, but when I asked he just told me that I'd see. I just shook my head and said how I despise secrets.

"Don't worry, you'll love this." He said with enthusiasm. I was a bit worried about what could be so exciting. And why in the Zeus cabin?

We sat down at Mike's table; you could sit anywhere during lunch. "For your sake I sure hope so." I said. We got our lunches and ate together. We held hands the hold time; it was really nice.

When we were done Mike led me toward the Zeus cabin. Along the way we met Percy and Annabeth. "Are you guys going to the Zeus cabin too?" Mike asked.

Percy and Annabeth walked over to us and we continued on to Ben's cabin. "Yeah, truth or dare is gonna be awesome." Percy said nodding.

My eyebrows shot up at that. "Truth or dare?" I asked turning to Mike. I loved truth or dare and I was hoping we were going to be playing the 'fun' version.

"We're playing the Aphrodite kids' version right?" Annabeth asked.

Percy got a wicked smile on his face. Mike had one on his face too. "Oh yeah, it's gonna be so fun" Percy said, as we reached the cabin.

I could hear laughter inside from more than one person. Percy knocked once or twice before we heard Ben's voice shout "Come in!"

When we entered the cabin I saw Ben and Jena sitting side by side holding hands, along with Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner. They were all laughing while Jena's face was bright red.

We entered the cabin and shut the door behind us. "So whose turn is it?" Percy said as we all took seats in a circle on the floor.

"Hey, let's explain the rules to Keirin first." Ben said. "Okay so its truth or dare, except if you don't tell the truth or take the dare, you have to strip one piece of clothes." Ben looked over at Jena who had taken her shirt off. I wondered what she hadn't done or answered.

"Mike you knew about this?" I shrieked turning to Mike. I mean I was excited to play; these games were always hilarious, but the fact that Mike would play it was just… wow.

He turned a shade of red. "Well, I thought it'd be fun and come on lighten up!" He said with a laugh. I hit him on the shoulder but he just smiled and laughed more.

"Anyway, it's Jena's turn." Ben said putting his arm around his new girlfriend's waist. She scooted a little closer to him and he smiled down at her.

Jena smiled and turned her gaze on Mike. "So Mike… truth or dare?" She asked.

"Hmmm… dare." Mike replied.

Jena got an evil look on her face. "Well… I dare you to go skinny dipping in the lake with Keirin!" Every one broke out in laughter. I looked over at Mike to see if he was going to take the dare or not.

Mike looked at me to see what I thought. He raised his eyebrows in a question. I gave him a DEFINET NO look. "Aww, as awesome as that sounds, Hades would kill me, so I can't do the dare." Mike said stripping his shirt off. He had an eight pack. It was nice. He saw me staring and said "You like what you see, no?"

I blushed bright red and looked down at the floor. "Definitely some sweet eye-candy." I said looking up at his face. He did that signature guy single nod thing and flashed me his super bright smile.

"Okay well it's my turn now." Mike said turning to look around at the others sitting in the Zeus cabin. "Hmmm… Travis, truth or dare?"

Travis looked at Mike for a while, contemplating his answer. "Truth" he said.

"Did you lose your virginity yet? And who with?" Mike asked him.

Travis flashed a glance at Katie before answering. "I lost mine with Katie" he said smiling shyly. He licked his lips nervously and smiled at Katie whose face was bright red all the way to her ears. "My turn; Keirin, truth or dare?" Travis said looking over at me.

I wanted to say dare so badly. "Dare." I decided to throw caution and good sense to the wind. As long as I wasn't going to be skinny dipping in the lake I would be okay.

"I dare you and Mike to stay in the closet together for five turns!" Travis said; a huge smile on his face. I know we were in the Zeus cabin but I doubted that would make any difference in closet size, and I remember the closet in the Hades cabin being small for even one person to stand in.

I wasn't afraid of a closet. "Fine" I said standing up and pulling Mike to his feet. Ben got up and opened a closet door, and I found that I had been right. The closet was just as small as my own in the Hades cabin. Mike and I squished in next to each other but that didn't work, and soon we were facing each other chests pressed awkwardly together.

"So…" Mike began. "How was the underworld?" He asked me. I decided now was as good a time as any to tell him about his unexpected visit.

"Well it was good… Persephone wants to meet you." There I'd said it. He didn't respond for a while and just stood there quietly.

"So that means?" He asked. I was pretty sure he got the idea; he was just hoping that he was wrong. I hated to burst his bubble.

"You get to visit my family… in the underworld…" I said trailing off, waiting for his response. It didn't come. "Like tonight…" I added.

Mike looked up at me hesitantly. "So I'm going to the underworld with you tonight." He said looking me in the eyes.

"Yes. Its part of a test to shadow travel and because they want to meet you…" I said. I was telling the truth, and I prayed he would agree to come. If not, I would have to force him there and that would be hard.

"Cool. So this is like a step in the right direction. I'm meeting your family. That's all. Yeah, it'll be fine." Mike said. He had just giving me the best answer possible!

"That's great!" I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Yes, it's definitely a step in the right direction!" I agreed with him completely. "So what are we supposed to do for the rest of-"

Mike cut me off by kissing me full on the lips. It was soft and at the same time passionate. He moved an arm around my waist and pulled my body against his. It wasn't all that far considering we were in a closet. I gasped and pulled away.

"I'm sorry I-" Mike started.

"Don't be it was nice." I said cutting him off. It had been more than nice. I had liked it more than I really wanted to admit and was contemplating asking for another kiss when Mike made the decision for me. Our lips met again and this time he wasn't gentle. It wasn't hard or mean, but it was ruff. His tongue was soon asking for permission to enter my mouth. I let him and soon he had pulled my body close to him again, placing his hands on my hips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and probably would have done more but then the door opened and everyone was staring at us.

Mike cursed in ancient Greek which was good in the sense that it showed that he could remember SOME of his ancient Greek. I smiled way too big and looked around awkwardly. "So… whose turn is it?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Yours" Ben answered. He gave me a look that said we would be talking later and that he and Mike would be too. Ben was almost as bad as a dad sometimes with guys and me. There was one time he practically scared a guy into saying yes to me when I asked him out. Last time I ever told Ben about my crush.

We sat down first before I asked anyone. Well, Mike sat down and then proceeded to pull me down onto his lap. "Jena truth or dare?" I asked her. She apparently really sucked at the whole truth or dare thing, because she was down to only her bra and underwear.

"Dare" She said in reply. Yeah she really sucked. She was down to almost nothing, and had chosen dare. How crazy is she?

"I dare you to… rip off Ben's pants!" I said. It was a genius idea, I just hoped she would take the dare instead of removing one of the two articles of clothes she still had on. She had the right idea and stood up telling Ben to do the same. Then she pants-ed him! It was hilarious! We all laughed while Jena and Ben turned bright red at the sight of Ben's Mario Kart boxers! "Oh and you have to leave them off Ben!" I said which increased the laughter.

I looked around and saw that Katie and Travis both had their shirts off, Ben and Jena were both in their underwear, Percy had only his boxers on still, and Annabeth had just taken off her shirt. I was the only one still fully dressed.

Jena was determined to change that. "Keirin, truth or dare?" she said to me with an evil smile stretching across her face. I had to remember, this was a daughter of Ares, not just Ben's little girlfriend.

I mentally told that little voice in my head telling me to be safe and say truth to shut up. "Dare" I said giving her an equally evil smile right back.

"I dare you…" She began trailing off. She looked around at everyone, thinking of something terrible to make me do. "I dare you and Mike to make out for one minute right here in front of all of us!" She said with a now triumphant smile on her face.

I looked towards Mike who got a mischievous look in his eyes. He raised an eyebrow in question. "As long as you're not against it I'm not." I said to Mike. He didn't answer and just grabbed my arm and pulled me against him.

Our lips crashed together in a rush. Soon enough his tongue was in my mouth. But I wasn't going to take the back seat this time. I pushed his tongue out of my mouth with my own tongue and I explored his mouth instead. I could feel him smiling the whole time; we both were.

"Get a room you two!" they all started shouting at us. Everyone was laughing, and they all looked really surprised that I'd taken the dare. I was enjoying my freedom out of the underworld.

Eventually we broke the kiss and it was my turn again. "Okay, Percy, truth or dare?" I asked looking over to where Percy and Annabeth were sitting side by side.

"Truth" he answered. At least HE had some common sense. I started thinking about what I wanted to ask him. I got a great idea. "Who besides Annabeth, do you think is the hottest girl here?" I asked.

"Well…" Percy began looking at all the girls in the circle. "No matter how much I don't want to answer that, these boxers are staying on." That earned an "AWW!" from Annabeth as Percy took yet another look around the circle. "I'd have to say Katie. But Annabeth is definitely number one!" Percy finally answered.

The game went on like that for a while; with a lot of laughter and jokes, until eventually everyone was down to their underwear. It was Travis's turn.

"Okay," He said starting off. "I have a dare for everyone. We all have to wear our boyfriend or girlfriend's clothes for the rest of the day!" We all agreed. I grabbed Mike's clothes and handed him mine. I had been wearing a dress which he eyed skeptically, thinking that it wouldn't fit. Well he stepped into it anyway and I zipped it up the back. It was really tight and extremely awkward looking on him but it stayed on. I pulled on his tee shirt and shorts, tightening his belt all the way. It didn't help much and his shorts kept falling down but hey, it was better then what Mike had to deal with. Percy and Annabeth had both been wearing casual stuff like tee shirts and shorts so it wasn't too bad for them. Katie had been wearing a skirt which Travis looked ridiculous in. Ben was still trying to fit into Jena's skinny jeans while the rest of us watched and laughed.

By the time we were all dressed it was only two hours before dinner, and one hour before Mike and I had to leave for the underworld. We all said goodbye and went our separate ways; Mike and I heading down towards the archery field.

"You know we'll have to change before we leave right? My dad and Persephone would freak it they saw us." I said looking at Mike and me in our outfits as we sat down in the grass.

Mike took his seat beside me and twined his fingers with mine. "Yeah, that would almost be worth it, except for the whole getting incinerated thing." We both laughed at that, imagining Hades and Persephone's reaction. For a while we didn't speak and just sort of sat together; enjoyed the sun over head and the wind in our hair.

But we had to get to the underworld and we were going to change clothes first. "Well, we better get changed. I'll meet you at your cabin." I said pulling him to his feet.

"Sure, that sounds good." Mike said brushing the grass of his legs. My dress was ruined but it didn't really matter. We walked back to the cabins together, and Mike left me at mine. I quickly changed into more comfortable clothes. I let Mike's shirt at the bottom of one of my drawers. It was sort of nice to have something of his that he'd worn. Call me strange, but it still smelled like him.

I walked out of my cabin, shutting the doors behind me and headed to the Apollo cabin. I knocked on the door and soon one of Mike's siblings answered it.

"Hey Mike's still changing but he'll be out soon. Come on in." Jake Mason said. He was the head counselor for the Apollo cabin.

"Uh, thanks." I said stepping inside. It was just a normal cabin, plus the like, three pianos, five guitars, and assortment of other instruments that were everywhere around the cabin. Whatever was taking Mike so long, better be worth it.

It was. When Mike walked out of the bathroom, my dress in hand he was wearing a suit. Okay it was a little bit big but it was still a suit. He had done his hair too. Over all I was shocked.

After a few more moments of me staring he finally said "It's okay right?" He was really planning on impressing my dad and step mom.

Before I could answer; which was probably a good thing, Jake came over. "Wow, where are you two going?" He asked looking Mike up and down.

"The underworld" Mike said. He straitened his tie and looked at me noticing what I was wearing.

"I don't have any dressy stuff here at camp. But don't worry I'll be changing when we get there." I said. Persephone would make sure of that.

Mike nodded to say that he understood and turned to Jake. "Wait. You two are dressing up to go to the underworld?" Jake asked, getting a confused look on his face.

"I'm meeting her dad and step mom. Wish me luck." Mike told him. He grabbed a bag from what I assumed was his bunk and then waved to Jake before heading out the door. Once we were out side he asked me "So how do we do this?"

"Well… You just hold on and try not to puke. I'm the one doing the work." I said taking his arm. I was already mentally preparing myself. I was running through everything Hades had told me.

"Okay cool. Wait, try not to puke what does that mean? Will I?" Mike asked turning to face me.

I was in shadow travel mode and didn't completely answer. "You shouldn't. I just hope we end up with our clothes still on." I mumbled under my breath.

Before Mike could ask anything else darkness enveloped us and there was a new colder wind blowing through out hair.


	12. A Little Detour

"Uff!" Mike grunted as we hit the ground. We were in the underworld alright, but I'd miscalculated our landing. We were now standing in the fields of punishment. But hey, at least we still had our clothes on, THAT would have been really hard to explain to Hades.

"Ow" I said getting up and brushing myself off. Nothing was broken even though I'd probably have a nice bruise on my left shin by tomorrow morning. "You okay?" I asked Mike, reaching down to help him up.

He took my hand and stood up before answering. "I think so. Nothing seems to be broken. How about you? There's always the chance of fracturing your ankle again." Mike said. He crouched down and looked at my ankle before I could tell him I was fine.

"It's fine Mike! Now let's work on getting out of here. This is not a good place." I said, looking around to see exactly where we were in the fields of punishment. I could see Tantalus in his lake, with the fruit tree hanging over his head, and then there was Sisyphus pushing his rock up a hill, just to have it roll back down. We were right in the middle of the fields.

"Hey where are we anyway?" Mike asked finally looking around at our surroundings.

"The fields of Punishment" I said as Mike stood up, trying to look for a way out. "I could try to shadow-travel us to the palace but I'm too drained to do that right away…" I trailed of as we heard the sound of wings in the distance.

The Furies were soon circling over our heads. "Ah ha, looks like we've found lunch, girls!" Alecto screeched at her sisters. They soon had landed in front of us.

Mike hummed a note; his bow appeared and he notched an arrow before I could tell him no. Megaera flew at him and took it from his hands, snapping it in two. "Hey! That was a gift from my father!" Mike shouted, storming towards the three.

I grabbed his arm to hold him back. "No Mike, just chill. This is some sort of a test or something; from my father." I said quietly enough so that I thought only Mike could hear me.

"You're right girl!" Alecto hissed at me; so much for only Mike hearing. "Your father has sent us to retrieve you, but only you. You may come with us and leave this boy to our torture, or you must find your own way back, through the fields." She said staring me in the eyes. I could see all the ways she planned to torture Mike, and I knew I couldn't leave him behind.

"Fine, you may leave then, and tell my father that we will be there shortly." I said, lifting my chin high. "And give Mike his bow back!" I grabbed Mike's hand afraid that they might be angered at my request. But Megaera just threw it to us, the bow fixing it's self in midair. Mike jumped forward and caught it, glaring at Megaera as he walked back to me.

"We will deliver your message."Alecto said nodding her head. "But it would be in your best interest to arrive at the palace before night falls; there are ghosts that come out to play in the dark, ghosts you might just know, boy." She added turning to Mike before her and both her sisters took off, headed back to report to my father.

I turned to Mike to see a frightened expression etched on his face. "Mike, are you okay?" I asked him. He was afraid of what they had said, of ghosts he might know.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get back; you know, before night." He said, starting to walk off to our right.

"Um, Mike, that's the wrong way." I said. If I let him keep going he'd end up spending the night with a few of the inmates of Tartarus.

"Oh right, whatever." He said, following my lead. We trudged on for about an hour, but we still didn't seem to get anywhere. And it was starting to get dark.

"Maybe I should try and shadow-travel us there… it is getting a little late." I said looking over to see Mike's expression. He was looking a little nervous, turning his head to look all around as if he was expecting something to jump out at us.

"No it wouldn't be safe. You're too tired. We'll make it don't worry." He said, trying to reassure me. He looked more like he was the one who needed the reassurance.

"Fine, but once it gets dark we're shadow traveling; I don't care what you say. Worse things than ghosts come out in the dark down here." I said. I didn't even know what all came out in the dark down here. Personally, I was really hoping on some help from Nico right about then but I honestly doubted he would do anything like that for Mike.

We kept on going for about two more hours, trudging over endless grey grass, looking forward at even more endless grey grass, with just a small grey dot on the horizon merely suggesting the existence of Hades' palace. Eventually it started getting dark and me and Mike needed to rest. We set up camp right in the open, because it would be easier to see anyone coming, and because there really was nowhere else to really set up camp. There were shades starting to move about now; wandering aimlessly around, speaking in their bat-like voices. Most kept their distance, watching with curious eyes, wondering what two living souls were doing in the underworld.

One of them came up to us though. "Mike" it said completely ignoring me. She had dark hair that cascaded down her shoulders in waves, and deep blue eyes. "It's been so long! I've been searching and searching for you!" She said in that sad way the dead talk when they do talk. "Why haven't you saved me? You said you would be like Orpheus! Why haven't you come for me?" She wailed.

I looked over to see that Mike had gone deathly pale. "I-I wanted to! Chiron wouldn't let me! He said I wasn't ready for a quest that dangerous!" He shouted at the mysterious girl. "I tried I really did! I never forgot you Andrea!" So her name was Andrea. But how had she known Mike?

"Then why, Mike? Why is she here, with you? You've forgotten me! Why, Mike, why?" She said crying now.

"Mike who is she?" I asked turning to see Mike moving toward the shade. I grabbed his hand stopping him from moving any closer. I wasn't letting go of his hand. I wondered if this was really a shade…

Mike wanted to get to this girl. He was yanking his hand trying to get to her. "Andrea, I-I-I still remember you! I've never forgotten!" He said. He was practically dragging me along with him in his attempt to get to the girl.

"MIKE! Stop!" I had just figured it out. This was all a trick. It was Melinoe. She was disguised as whoever this strange girl was, and was trying to lure Mike to his death. "It's not her! It's not this Andrea girl! It's Melinoe! Don't listen to her!"

The goddess of ghosts turned on me. "You, daughter of Hades. Who are your ghosts? I'll find out you know. And when I do-"she said turning to her true form. That's when Mike shot her.

"Andrea! I'm sorry!" Mike shouted as Melinoe bled golden ichor; the blood of the immortals. He was crying now; he had still seen this Andrea girl, and had shot her anyway. He'd heard me and listened no matter what he'd seen. Melinoe disappeared leaving a scream of agony in her wake.

Mike collapsed, and would have gotten a face full of dirt if I hadn't caught him. He was still crying and I just held him there for a while. Eventually he pulled himself together and pulled away.

"Keirin I'm sorry." Mike started.

"Don't be. Melinoe can fool anyone. And in the end you saved us. That's what counts." I said to him. "Looks like you've saved my life again." I added with a laugh.

"I guess so." He said nodding. "We should move away from here, who knows what nasties she might have attracted."

We started off back in the direction of the palace. Soon we had come to where Sisyphus was rolling his rock up the hill.

It rolled down and he let out a string of curses. "Hey! Young man!" He called over when he saw us. "You look like you could get this boulder to the top of this hill easy! Come over here!" A hellhound standing nearby overseeing Sisyphus's torture jumped at him growling. "Alright, alright!" Sisyphus said grumbling as he went back to rolling his rock up the hill.

"Mike, that's it!' I said turning towards Mike. "The hellhounds; they can shadow-travel! We just need to get one to help us…" I said thinking of how this would work. All of the hellhounds around us were huge, adults by the looks of them. They had teeth the size of the average tooth brush, and claws like switch blades.

Mike turned to me after staring at the huge beasts scattered around Sisyphus. "How will we do that?" Mike said giving me a skeptical look.

"If we could just get on down, and then you could tell it where to go and it would probably take you there and I could meet you there… but then again it might just eat you…" I said thinking through a plan. I would tackle the hellhound then Mike would take over and tell it Hades' court, then it would travel him there. Mean while I would shadow-travel there. Ta-da I pass the test and Mike and I are both safe!

Mike gave me a look like I was crazy, which looked pretty funny on him, because he was still wearing his suit. "EXACTLY! This is insane!" Mike said shaking his head.

I leaned in so that he could hear me and to make sure that the hellhounds couldn't. "No, no just listen" I said, and then I told him my plan. "So, you in?" I asked him. He nodded, and we put the plan into action.

I circled around behind a few of the guard dogs. They were still growling at Sisyphus occasionally, and were pretty occupied by keeping him inline as he spewed curses. I waited until one went in to bark at Sisyphus; leaving only one of them in front of me. That's when I jumped. I took him by surprise and his knees buckled sending us to the ground. Then Mike jumped over and I told the hound "Hades court!" soon there was a gust of wind and they were gone.

It was my turn to shadow travel. The wind roared in my ears and I was in darkness.


	13. Meeting The Folks

Okay, MAJOR author's note:

I'm SO sorry for being lazy and not updating! Well, first I was sick for like a week, and then I had a ton of tests, and you know how make-up work is after you've been out for a long time. Thanks to readers who commented about me not updating, you really make it all worth it. With out you this story would mean nothing! I hope this chapter makes up for some of it. But don't worry I will be updating at least 2 more before *wink* next year! hahaha! Now enough of my lame jokes, back to Keirin!

The wind surrounding me stopped blowing and I opened my eyes. I was standing in Persephone's garden. Mike, Hades, Nico, and Persephone were standing there in a huddle arguing. They seemed to be pretty agitated. That's when Mike saw me.

"Keirin!" Mike shouted and ran towards me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the lips, right in front of Hades, Persephone, and Nico. "Oh gods, you're okay, right? Nothing's broken, hurt? You feel all right?" Mike asked letting me go and looking me over before pulling me in for another hug and a kiss.

"Ahem" Nico coughed behind us and we turned to see Hades grinding his teeth and Persephone mouthing _Aww!_

"SO" I said trying to pry myself from Mikes grasp. He wasn't letting go though and kept his arms tightly wrapped around my waist.

Persephone was still _Aww_-ing while Hades was glaring at Mike. "So this is the young man who saved your life." Hades said coming over to stand in front of Mike, who seeing the look on Hades' face had wisely left go of my waist and stepped a few feet away.

Mike straitened up and looked Hades in the eyes; surprising all of us. "Yes sir," He answered. "I wouldn't change what I did for the world." Mike was holding his own against the god of the dead. I was impressed.

Persephone came over looking really excited. "Aww" There it was. "You two are adorable!" she squealed. She pinched both of our cheeks smooshing our faces together. "Nico, why can't you find a decent girl?" Persephone asked, turning her attention from me and Mike, to Nico's single-ness.

"Never mind that," Hades said, shooing Persephone away. "Keirin go to your room and get changed."

"And Nico find something of yours that Mike can wear, his outfit is ruined." Persephone said. "Something nice; just look in that section of your closet that you never touch." She added with a smile. "Come on Keirin I'll help you get changed."

I headed up to my room, Persephone following close behind, while Mike and Nico headed the opposite direction to Nico's room. We went back the hall made a left and then went down to the fifth door on the right. I stepped in and was about to shut my door when Persephone stepped in.

"Umm I need to get a shower and get changed why don't you wait with Hades or something?" I suggested. She wasn't really going to pick out my outfit or anything, because if she was… I was a little apprehensive.

"Why of course not" She said waving her hands dismissively. "I'm going to help you pick out your outfit! So go get in the shower while I get started!" She ordered as she threw me a towel.

I got out of the shower wrapped in my towel, to see Persephone riffling through my closet. She has pulled out a few various outfits for me and laid them on my bed and I wasn't impressed. The first was this pink medieval looking contraption with a corset. The second also had a corset, and as I looked them all over I noticed that they all had a corset, but this one was a green shade; another old dress with a way too low neckline for me. The third was this modern light blue strapless dress; it would have been nice except for the corset and the fact that it was really high above my knees and really low cut up top. And she still wasn't done looking.

"Umm, you can't be serious right?" I asked Persephone, who had her back towards me digging through my closet.

She turned to me holding another dress in her hands. "Of course I am. I'm thinking the light blue one with this scarf." She said discarding the dress she was holding, and instead grabbed a light pink, cashmere scarf. It must have had sparkles on it or something too, because it shimmered as Persephone moved it on top of the dress comparing the colors. "Yes I think that will do nicely." She said taking the dress and scarf in hand and holding them both up to me.

"Nice scarf" I said laying on the sarcasm. Apparently there wasn't much sarcasm in the underworld, because she just smiled.

"It's one of my… friend's; she let me borrow it." She said holding out the dress to me. She looked deviously at me.

"You're friend? Who would your friend be?" I said from the bathroom where I was changing into my dress. I threw the corset to the side; I wouldn't wear that for a million bucks.

"Oh… just Aphrodite…" she said casually. "It's nothing REALLY… just a little love magic…" My mouth gaped as I came out of the bathroom. I turned around and let her zip up the back of the dress as I tried to process the whole scarf thing. She was going to make me wear this scarf whether I wanted to or not, I knew that.

"NO. NO love magic." I said. I wasn't giving in that easily. It wouldn't be fair to Mike if I wore the scarf… it would mess with his emotions…

"Aww, come on! It won't affect Nico, Hades, or Me; just Mike!" She said pleadingly as she turned me around and fixed my hair. "Don't worry, it won't hurt anything!" She cried.

"But…. It'll mess with his emotions…" I said trying to convince myself. I mean, just a little love magic didn't sound too bad…

"Oh don't worry! See I asked her especially about you and Mike, and she told me that the scarf doesn't create emotions, it only amplifies existing emotions!" She said waving away any doubts I might have had. I mean really, as long as it wasn't going to mess with him TOO much…

"Fine" I grumbled as she put the scarf around my neck. I looked at it in the mirror and thought that it might have looked nicer if it was a necklace, and suddenly, I was wearing a silver chain with a light blue heart pendant on it. "Whoa, so will it do that for anyone who looks at it?" I asked.

"Yep" she said smiling as she patted me on the back. "Let's go meet the boys!" She pulled me after her down the stairs.

By the time we got down to the dining room the boys were already seated. As we rounded the corner and my eyes met Mike's, I heard him let out a small gasp. I was liking the scarf. He then got up and moved over to give me a kiss on the cheek. He pulled out my chair gesturing for me to sit. He then took his seat right beside me.

"So, you've met Mike." I said to break the awkward silence that had formed at the table. Hades clapped once and skeletal servers came and brought our meal.

"Yes." Hades replied. I could see where this was going. First the one-syllable answers, then the disapproving looks… "So Mike, how did you meet Keirin?" Hades asked. Okay he was taking the twenty questions approach.

"Well… um, we go to camp together, and we play capture the flag together." He replied, shooting me a glance.

"Yes… so I've heard." Hades said. He turned to his food, and didn't ask any more questions. Persephone seeing an opening; just couldn't let there be a moment of silence.

She cleared her throat and looked Mike over. "So Mike, what are your plans?" Persephone asked him.

"Umm, what do you mean by plans?" Mike asked her. I hadn't understood the question either. Did she mean for tomorrow or what?

"For your future." She answered him. "What college do you want to go to? What do you plan on majoring in? I mean surely you don't plan on just being a hero!" She said with a laugh.

"Oh yes, college." He said. "Well, I'm thinking of majoring in music and something in the medical field; I'm not sure what yet. And as for what college I might attend… I really haven't started looking all that much."

She seemed pleased at that answer, so she threw him another question. "Do you want to get married eventually? Kids?" She asked.

"Uhhh…" Mike glanced over at me. "I haven't really gotten that far yet. I'm only 15." He smiled nervously at Persephone.

"Oh, well." Persephone said turning back to her food. We continued eating in silence for a while until eventually it was about the time when we would usually have our last training session.

Hades stood and clapped and the skeletal servers came and cleared the table. "Now, Mike, I hope you will join us for a training session." Mike glance at me after watching in awe as the skeletal servers and out dirty dishes melted into the walls of the palace. He gave me a questioning look and shrugged as if to say what the heck. I nodded in agreement and Mike stood along with me and Nico.

"That would be great." Mike said to Hades. "As long as you won't mind me using my bow" he added, humming a note and pulling his bow from thin air, along with a full quiver of arrows that I knew – because he'd told me once while we were comparing weapons – never went empty. Hades raised an eyebrow and muttered something that sounded like "Apollo and his darned bows".

"Well come on. Let's head out to the arena." Hades said and instantly disappeared. He had shadow traveled to the arena and soon Nico followed him. It was part of our training to be able to fight right after shadow traveling. I grabbed Mikes hand and soon the wind was blowing our hair and we were engulfed in darkness.


	14. No One's Princess

Hey! So this is update two of the holiday break! I KNOW I'll get at least one more of these out to you guys, and if your lucky you might get two more! Hope this chapter is cool, this is probably my last "author's note" for a while unless I have any problems. ANYWAY... back to Keirin!

When the wind stopped blowing we were standing in a large arena built into the side of a large hill. It was built with seats enough for two thousand people, and had a high wall separating the center where all the events were from the stands so that people couldn't get to the fight, and the fight couldn't get to the people. Hades and somehow Persephone were both sitting at the end arena in their grand seats. Nico was heading back into one of the tunnels leading off of the center floor, and I followed him eventually entering the tunnel to the right of his. I dragged Mike along with me as he tried to get a look at everything at once.

After a few turns that would disorient anyone who didn't already have them memorized, we entered a large chamber. The walls were covered in all sorts of weapons; swords, bows, knives, even a trident and net. There was a table at one end where I already had my armor sitting, polished and ready for battle and an extra set of armor alongside it for Mike to use. There was also a closet of clothes to wear under my armor all fitter just for me.

"Whoa, is this like an everyday thing?" Mike asked as he spun around in circles trying to count how many weapons there were covering the walls.

"Well, yeah. But it's different each time." I said as I moved over to the table where my armor was sitting, just waiting for me to go over and put it on. "Sometimes it's me against Nico; sometimes my dad brings in a monster for me to fight. Sometimes it's me and Nico fighting against the monster. And sometimes we aren't allowed to use weapons."

"Against monsters?" Mike said as he came over to join me by my armor. I handed him his armor and he handed me his bow, which I sat on the table where his armor had been. "Hey, uh, should I like change out of the suit?" Mike said, and as I turned around I realized that we both still had on our dress clothes from dinner.

"Oh…" I said looking down at my own gown and then at Mike's suit. This was going to be a problem. "How about I send you over to Nico's room? Here come on." I grabbed his wrist and he just had time to grab his bow from the table as I drug him out of my room and into the maze of hallways.

When we finally got to Nico's room, I knocked on the large almost black doors. They were made of wood, and stood at least ten feet high. Soon we could here Nico walking toward the doors from the other side. Mike and I both stepped back as Nico pulled the heavy doors open.

"What do you want Keirin?" He asked me leaning up against the one door and crossing his arms over his chest.

That was when I noticed that Nico was only in his boxers. "Mike needs to change out of his suit and I figured that he probably wouldn't want to wear any of the stuff I have in my closet, and Dad would probably incinerate him for changing there anyway, so he needs to get ready with you." I said as fast as I could before shoving Mike towards Nico's room. "I have to go and get ready too so bye!" I said over my shoulder as I turned to sprint back to my room.

Once I entered my room I went straight to my closet, picking out one of the many, exactly the same outfits. It was a tight brown long-sleeved shirt and black skinny jeans, things you might find in a normal girl's closet. I slipped out of my dress, hanging it up on the outfit's now-empty hanger and pulled the shirt and jeans on. I slipped on my armor next and then looked at the necklace that had originally been a scarf. I thought for a while about taking it off and leaving it here, but decided that I'd rather just leave it on. I decided that it at least had to change forms, because the silver chain could possibly break and I did not want to find out what Aphrodite's punishment for breaking her scarf would be. So I stared at the necklace for a while and then willed it to become a different necklace, a sort of chocker-necklace. It was still silver, but instead of being a delicate chain, it was now thick and make up of many panels of silver al connected but flexible at the joints. It was tight enough so that it wouldn't get caught on anything, but not so tight that it constricted my breathing. It almost felt like elastic.

I looked up at the walls, thinking about which weapon I should choose. Hades was having a custom blade made for me, but it took time to add in the magic. It was going to be designed so that it would always reappear around my ankle, like a sort or ankle bracelet. Along with the curses that would make it effective against the dead and the living, there was a lot of magic going into my sword. But for now I was stuck to picking weapons from the wall in my room. This was okay with me honestly. There was a huge assortment of weapons covering the wall, and I liked to use a different one each time, but since I didn't know what would happen with Mike joining us, I stuck to the old reliable, one handed sword that was just in my reach. See, sometimes I had to move the table to where ever the weapon was hanging and the stand on top of it just to reach the weapon. With the one foot long blade in my hand I headed out into the arena to see what Hades had planned for us.

When I stepped into the center of the arena and looked around, I noticed several things. One: Nico and Mike weren't out yet, which I hoped wasn't a bad thing. Two: I wasn't actually standing in the center of the arena, because in the center of the arena there were several large tower-like structures, each connected to another by a single bridge, forming a sort of circle of towers connected by bridges with one tower taller than the others in the center. Three: Nico and Mike WERE out already, and were each standing at the top of a tower.

I soon decided that I should join them, so I went to the bottom of the tower beside Mikes and started searching for a door.

"Keirin, the tower in the center." Hades said from his seat at the head of the arena. I followed his orders and went to find a door open to the center tower. I went inside and was confronted by a large set of stairs, in obvious disrepair. Before I could notice anything more I heard the door slam behind me. Hades' voice was soon booming through the arena, but I had to strain to hear him through the walls of the tower. "Keirin is now locked in the center tower. You two must free her."

Great.

~ In the grand seats ~

"Ooh! Wouldn't it be just perfect is she was dressed like a proper princess, not some ragged armor?" Persephone said with a smile. "It would be just like some sort of fairy tale!"

Hades sighed. "If you must" He said with the wave of his hand.

Persephone squealed once and was gone.

~ Back in the center tower ~

I heard slight sound behind me and turned swiftly and rushed, sword raised at the noise. "Hey!" I shouted as I quickly stopped before I impaled Persephone.

"Ahh!" She squealed as she jumped back from my sword pointed at her neck. "Put that away!"

I sheathed my sword at my side but still kept my hand on its hilt and turned to look at Persephone. "What are you here for and whose idea was this?" I asked her.

"I'm here to help you fit the part!" She said, leaving my other question unanswered. She quickly stepped around me and soon got a smile on her face that I didn't like.

"What part?" I asked cautiously. She was still walking in circles around me. She soon stopped and flashed me a grin before snapping her fingers. Suddenly the weight of my armor was gone.

"This part" She said holding up a mirror, she'd gotten from who knows where. I looked at the girl reflected there, and I did not know her. She was in a large poofy dress that was… pink. It didn't look bad until the waist and down; it was strapless and low cut, but still pink. She was also wearing a crown which had to have been Aphrodite's scarf-necklace thing because it was now missing from her neck. She was wearing glass slippers too. The only thing I was comfortable with was that she still had the same sword strapped to her side. The girl in the mirror was me.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" I shouted still not taking my gaze from the girl in the mirror. I also noticed the make-up, which actually wasn't too bad-looking, but I wasn't telling Persephone that.

"You're the Princess! Oh and here." Persephone snapped her fingers again and we were soon standing at the top of the stairs in a small room with one window. The door soon shut and locked. "Now, you're trapped in the tower, with too handsome young men trying to save you!" As soon as the words left her mouth she vanished.

"Aghhh!" I shouted, leaning out the window I shouted some choice words that made Persephone gasp while Hades and the two boys just laughed and stared at my outfit. I was not giving up. I still had my sword. First I went to the door and tried to get it open.

~ In the arena ~

Mike shouted over to the tower next to him. "Hey Nico, is this a team thing or –"

"No." Nico interrupted him, thinking of how tired he was of helping Mike. I mean sure the guy was okay, the might even be friends. If only he hadn't fallen for Keirin.

Ever since finding out that he had another sister, Nico had had a plan. First, find said sister and bring her to camp. Second, keep said sister safe from all dangers including, boys. Well, the first part of Nico's seemingly simple plan had gone flawlessly, but the second part had proved difficult. I mean what do you do when the boy you're trying to protect her from saved her life? You can't just go bully the kid. So now here he was, with his unofficial enemy asking if they were going to team up to save his sister. He was going to make sure that he got their first, and if things went according to plan, Nico would make sure that Mike never got so much as a glance at Keirin in that low-cut dress.

"Oh, okay… well may the best man win then." Mike said turning away from the tower where Nico was stranded. Mike looked over the edge of his own tower as he thought of a plan. He HAD to save Keirin. There were multiple reasons. First of all, he was Keirin's boyfriend; of course he had to save her! Secondly, he HAD to impress her dad. No question; that was his most important task while in the underworld besides being there for Keirin. Thirdly, he just could not let Nico beat him. Mike wasn't sure what it was, but the guy just didn't seem to like him. Fourth on the list was that Nico carried a sword. Mike didn't have a problem with Keirin and her sword, but he had to stick up for Apollo's honor down here and win with his bow.

Mike looked more closely at the set up of the arena. There were exactly nine towers surrounding the center one, all of them connected to the two on either side of it by bridges and just the one on the very opposite end of the circle had a bridge to the center tower. Mike looked over and saw that Nico was planning on using this to his advantage. Slowly Mike got an idea. Mike knew it had been a good idea to swipe that rope from Nico's collection of weapons. It didn't have a grappling hook which would have been ideal, but it wasn't necessary. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and tied one end of the rope to the arrow and wrapped the other end around his hand. Mike brought his bow up and notched the arrow, praying to Apollo and even Artemis that this shot hit its mark. He let it loose and watched as it streaked across from his tower to the one where Keirin was trapped. He gave the end he still had in his hand a tug, and was overjoyed when he found that it was tight. After praying to every god he could think of, even Hades, Mike jumped.

~ Back in the center tower ~

"Curse you door!" I shouted as I kicked at the door for what seemed like the seven millionth time. I leaned my head on the cool wood of the door as I thought of another way out. That was when I heard a crack. I rushed over to the only small window in the room and looked out too see a rope stretching from where Mike was, on top of his tower, to an arrow that was now embedded in the stone of my tower. I then watched in horror as Mike jumped right off of the edge of his tower.

"NOOO!" I screamed before I realized what he was doing. He was swinging on his rope. I soon heard the sound of his feet crashing into the side of the tower somewhere far below me. That was when I decided.

I would not be saved.

~ In the grand seats ~

"Oh that was brave" Persephone said as she watched Mike start to climb the side of the center tower. She was amazed at his fore thought to bring rope.

Hades looked over at her with a bored expression. "And stupid. If that arrow hadn't held he'd be dead. Nico is the smart one. He's going through the towers." Hades said nodding to where Nico had just burst through the door to tower he had started on. It would have been easier to have shadow traveled strait into the tower, but at Persephone's request to make things fair, Hades had made it impossible to shadow travel inside the arena.

"No Nico's the dumb one. All of those doors are locked. By the time he breaks through every one of those, he won't have enough energy to even climb half way up those stairs in her tower to then find yet another locked door." Persephone said laughing. That shut Hades up.

~Back in the arena ~

Nico had just entered the second tower. He ran across the floor panting heavily, to find that the door ahead of him was locked. Not again. Nico softly banged his head on the solid door, already feeling the pain in his shoulder he would get from smashing through that door. But he had to get to Keirin. He took a few steps back and then ran at the door. The wood gave way and he was through, and the pain was there.

Meanwhile, Mike was scaling the tower now, his feet aching from his impact with the tower. He had a long way to go and as he looked up to the small window he was planning to crawl through to get to Keirin he felt a twinge of doubt that he could make it. But he pushed onward.

~ Back in the center tower ~

I leaned out the window, looking down to see how far up Mike was from the ground. He was only about ten feet up, and the longer I waited the higher he would get. I looked to my left and saw that the rope Mike was climbing up was anchored by an arrow only about a foot from where I was leaning out the window. I reached out and grabbed the arrow. "Sorry Mike!" I yelled before I took out my sword and slashed at the rope, splitting it in one swing.

"Hey, what the- OW!" Mike shouted as he landed with a thud on the ground.

"I'm sorry! Love you!" I shouted down as I tried not to laugh at the expression on his face. It was somewhere between hurt confusion and utter disbelief.

"Love you too." He shouted back up before mumbling some things I didn't catch. I didn't think about it too much as I smiled and yanked his arrow from the side of the tower. If only I had another… But I was not about to ask for help from Mike. I would do this on my own. That would teach Persephone and Hades to trap me in a tower and send two boys to save me!

I climbed out onto the window's way too small edge and looked down. See here's the strange thing about me. I'm not afraid to look down when I'm high up, it's looking UP that freaks the crap out of me. So I slowly stood up and turned my face to the wall directly in front of me. I took the arrow in my hand and stabbed it high above my head into the rock. After testing that it would hold my weight, I pulled myself up and dug my feet into small notches in the wall. "Here goes nothing." I said and began to climb.


	15. I Save Myself

Hey! I know I said that the last chapter would be my last author note for a while but I was wrong... It happens(strange, I know right?). But I was looking at my reviews, and had a few comments. 1) I got this as a comment:

Hahahaha This Story sux:Boooriiiiiiiinnnngggggg!

If that doesn't make you want to slap the person who wrote that comment I don't think you're sane. I understand criticism, but hey, if you're gonna say bad stuff, give me a reason. So the I CAN FIX IT!

2) I got this also as a comment:

That was an AWESOME chapter! I hope Mike gets to Keirin first. I apologize  
>for the other anonymous reviewer, what they said was mean. Anyway, I love this<br>story!

If you are reading this, thank you amazing reader. I don't expect everyone to love my story. But I do expect you to have some restrain. Don't go hating on other people's stories, cause you know, you don't have to read it! So if you don't like a story, either comment constructively about why you don't like it, or don't comment at all. Don't be mean for no reason. Un-signed reviews always make me wonder, so to you amazing reader, this chapter is dedicated. But back to Keirin, she's the real star here!

~ On the center tower ~

I steadied my breathing as I slowly looked up. I was at the same time thankful that Persephone had trapped me in a room so high up on the tower, and mad at her for making the tower walls almost completely smooth. I was only about twenty feet from the top of the tower and I was going to make it no matter what I had to do. I looked back down and saw that Mike had notched another arrow with rope tied to it and was aiming for the area to my right. I sighed and with the hand that wasn't holding the arrow, pulled out my sword. He shot and before the arrow even touched the wall I stretched out my arm and deflected the arrow with my sword edge.

"Sorry Mike! I'm on a mission!" I shouted down to him. I looked down to see him scowling determinedly. He didn't even respond as he pulled out two fresh arrows and dug them into the wall high above his head. He then pulled himself up with them and his feet found holds against the wall. He took out one arrow and moved it higher while stepping up at the same time. He then moved the other arrow above that one, and repeated the stepping higher. He was climbing. I had to move fast.

I sheathed my sword and gripping the small crack I had found on the wall, I took out my arrow and moved it up higher. I pulled myself up and found places for my feet and hands before moving the arrow again. I had moved it twice more before looking down to see Nico burst through another door. He looked to be tiring, and was rubbing his shoulder. I felt bad for him, but his struggle just meant one less boy to worry about.

~ In the grand seats ~

"What in the river Styx is she doing!" Persephone cried to Hades. She was horrified at the sight below her. Keirin was going to ruin that lovely dress and her nails, which Persephone had worked for hours to perfect. It had required endless pleading and – Persephone cringed – a trade of letting her wear shorts and tee-shirts for one whole week. And now all that work was ruined. Sigh.

"Ha, she cut the boy's rope!" Hades beamed as he watched his daughter go climbing up the side of her tower. He hadn't expected her to stay in that tower willingly, but he'd never imagined that she'd go so far as to climb from the tower window! He barely noticed Nico smash through another door, and he studied Mike climbing after his daughter. He was gaining some ground, but she was still practically eighty feet above him.

~ In the arena ~

Mike was huffing and puffing as he followed Keirin up the tower. He could tell that he was definitely gaining on her though; that was for sure. He knew that he was still far away, but didn't know exactly how far, because he avoided looking up; the dress Keirin was wearing didn't hide much. All he thought was that he had to catch up with her and keep her safe. And beat Nico.

Nico was breathing heavily now and his shoulder was killing him. He was contemplating switching, but decided that he'd rather have just one busted shoulder than two. Once he got through his second tower and inside the third, he sat down in a heap on the stone floor. "This is never going to work." He sighed as he thought of another idea. It was risky but he had to try it. First he had to get to the top room in this tower. So Nico started climbing the stairs, and by the time he'd burst through the door into the tower's top room, Nico was tired. But he took the few steps over to the small window just in time to see Keirin slip.

~ On the center tower ~

"Just keep moving. Just keep moving." I repeated the orders to myself over and over as I slowly made my way closer and closer to the top of the tower. I wasn't sure why I was headed that way, but something in my gut was telling me that there was something up there that I needed to get to. And my gut was never wrong.

I was almost there when both of my feet slipped. "AHH!" I quickly muffled the scream before either of the boys could hear it. I could not show any weakness. I had to prove myself. I took a few deep breaths while I continued clinging to the arrow that was still miraculously holding. I soon found new foot holds and continued climbing.

I soon reached the edge and pulled myself up. I looked up and found myself staring at a horse, a Pegasus to be exact, a skeletal one. I stood up and took in the sight. It was in good condition for a skeleton, and looked fit to be ridden. So that's what I did. I climbed up onto the creatures back. It was very awkward sitting on its back in a dress. I grabbed a handful of mane – it was strange that a skeletal horse would need hair – and kicked the Pegasus's side commanding it to go.

The Pegasus ran off the top of the tower and went into a steep nose-dive. "Whoa! Pull up boy!" It obeyed my command and spread its wings, turning the downward plummet into a shallow swoop. I looked around at the arena below me as the creature took us higher in the air. I decided that the thing needed a name… Oscar. I would call him Oscar.

Mike was now staring open mouthed up at me and I waved, still leaving one hand tightly grasping Oscar's mane. I couldn't see Nico, but that was probably because he was in one of the towers somewhere. I made another circle over the arena and then headed for the grand seats.

~ In the grand seats ~

"NO! Don't do it!" Persephone was shouting at the top of her lungs, but no one besides Hades could hear her. She saw Keirin standing at the top of her tower now, and was dreading her next move. She couldn't get on that horse! No she just couldn't! Persephone found herself staring in dismay as Keirin mounted the terrible creature and kicked it into action.

"THAT'S my girl! Ha, see, she's gonna be a hero yet!" Hades said as he stood up in triumph. Keirin had found the horse! And because of that, it would become hers. He cheered as Keirin - oblivious to the noise – swooped in one last circle before heading toward them.

Persephone sighed at Hades' comment. He was right of course. Keirin was destined to be a hero, and the irrational thought that she could save Keirin from that kind of terrible fate had been just a desperate hope. Keirin would get her quest and would suffer for it as any good hero had in the past. How many heroes had Persephone known, that had their lives ruined by that cruel fate.

Persephone was shocked out of her thoughts as she suddenly noticed Keirin and that terrible horse hurtling at them. She kept waiting for Keirin to slow down, but she kept coming, and coming, and coming.

Persephone screamed as I flew over her head and landed in the stands behind the two gods. I laughed to myself at her reaction and dismounted from Oscar. I walked around to the box where they were seated. I nodded my head respectfully to my dad and looked over at Persephone trying not to laugh. I was shocked at the look on her face. It was as if something inside her had broken. And it was my fault. I looked away puzzled and turned my attention to my dad's face. He was beaming at me, as much as the god of the dead could beam. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. He just had a proud look to his face.

"Congratulations Keirin. You have succeeded in saving yourself from the tower, and as a reward, the Pegasus is yours." Hades said turning back to look at said Pegasus. He was calm enough, just standing and pawing the ground occasionally.

"Really?" I asked. I couldn't wait to take him to camp. I'd beat those Aphrodite kids at Pegasus racing yet! "So I can take him to camp in the summer?" I asked.

Before Hades could answer, we heard the clash of swords, coming from the arena below us.

~ In the arena ~

"What were you thinking?" Nico said as he slashed again. He had raced out of the tower he had been in as soon as he saw Keirin slip. He had raved out onto the bridge and jumped down onto the floor of the arena and raced toward the bottom of the tower Keirin was climbing. By then she had regained her grip and was starting to move again. He'd climbed up to Mike faster than Mike had expected, and after catching up to him, Nico had told him off for almost letting Keirin fall like that. How could he? How could he be so careless as to let her even start climbing? Nico was angry that his sister had been put in such danger. After some harsh words and a few pushes and shoves, both of them had ended up tumbling to the ground.

So there they were fighting over whose fault it was for Keirin almost falling. But it was over more than that really. It was about how Nico felt intimidating by Mike's presence in Keirin's life, how Mike felt that Nico was being overbearing towards his and Keirin's relationship, and just plain built up stress. So when Nico slashed and Mike back stepped, he also stabbed and caught Nico's left arm with the blade on his bow. It wasn't deep, but it sure did bleed like it. Mike couldn't believe what Nico was saying. Of course Mike cared about Keirin, she was his whole world. Why on earth did Nico think it was his fault that Keirin had slipped? If he'd had to, he would have caught her had she fallen. The two kept at it until they both had a good amount of cuts similar to that first one Mike had made. The whole time they were shouting profanities in English and Greek. Eventually they both tired and stepped away from each other, just then noticing the crowd of three people they'd attracted. Hades, Persephone, and Keirin were all staring at the two boys.

I was the one who had to break the silence. "What was that about?" I asked looking from Nico to Mike. They were both breathing heavily and had red faces. Mike had some deep cuts, while Nico's shoulder was now looking pretty banged up.

"Nothing" Nico said.

And Mike confirmed it. "It was nothing."

Keirin doubted it seriously, but nodded anyway. If the two boys didn't want to tell her that was fine it just better not happen again. "Fine, let's just go get some rest. I'm done." I said as I walked back to my changing room deep inside of the arena's tunnel system. "Meet me in my room then Mike." I said as I passed him.

I didn't know what to do about the dress so I left it on, and just put away my sword. I was reassured to see that my armor was back on its table still shinning as if it'd been polished yesterday. As I left my changing room and weaved through the halls, I found Mike.

"Hey, about what happened out there…" Mike began

I interrupted him. "I don't care Mike. I just don't want it to happen again." Softening my voice I added "I love you both and I don't want you fighting. Please for me."

He seemed to understand that I meant what I said and we were both silent as we walked. He reached out for my hand and I let my finger twine with his. It felt right to have our hands together. We were still silent, but just our hands being in each other's seemed to release some of the tension hanging between us. As soon as we were out of the tunnels I shadow traveled us back to my room in the Palace.

"So I'm guessing that tonight doesn't get mentioned again? At least not for a while?" Mike said looking into my eyes. He looked really ashamed of himself and I almost felt bad for him. But he had been bad, and now he deserved to feel ashamed.

"Nope never. But I forgive you. I can't stay mad at you." I said. I'd been planning on giving him a hard time and being stern about the whole thing, but maybe it was the sad face he was wearing, but I just couldn't help but give in to his sweet face.

"Thanks." Mike said and he leaned forward for a kiss. I didn't stop him and it felt nice as our lips met. It wasn't yesterday at Camp; this kiss was sweet and soft, with none of the harsh passion of the other kisses. It was almost like an apology kiss.

Everything went smoothly for about another week or so. We had training as normal, with the addition of Mike. I was still alone in my lessons with Persephone. As the day went on she seemed to get increasingly agitated, until by the last day in the week she snapped at me when I asked her to zip up the back of my dress. Dinners were okay, and our last training sessions were going fine. Everything was almost normal.

Until one day Persephone was gone.


	16. Homecoming Party

I've been in a very good mood, so this is yet another holiday update! Happy New Years everybody! Back to Keirin who kissed Mike for WAY TOO LONG on New Years eve! (I might actually put that in latter...)

I entered the dining room of Hades' palace in a tee shirt and shorts ready for breakfast. It felt great. I remembered Persephone telling me yesterday before last night's dinner that after this dinner, I could wear anything I wanted. I suddenly realized what she'd meant.

Hades sat in his normal seat, Nico to his right. Persephone was nowhere to be seen. I was shocked but from the look on Hades' face, he wasn't going to be answering many questions. I took my seat across from Nico as Mike came in. He looked a little shocked at first, shooting me a questioning gaze, but he sat down beside me all the same.

Hades gave a half hearted clap and the skeletal servers brought our food. We ate in silence. As soon as we were done Hades clapped again. He hadn't touched his food.

"You are all leaving today." He said still not looking at us. He sort of had a blank look and wasn't really paying attention to what was going on. "It is now summer, meaning that Persephone has left and you must go back to that camp of yours. You should be packed and ready by noon. We will not have any training." He added further explanation.

I looked over at Nico and he gave me a 'we'll talk later' look. I nodded in agreement and looked over to Mike. He was smiling at me and I couldn't help but smile back. I mean, sure I would miss Hades and his palace and his guard hellhounds, but I could not wait to see Ben and Percy and Annabeth and Everyone!

As soon as breakfast was over and we were all going up to our rooms I caught up to Nico. "What's wrong with Hades?" I asked him in a hushed whisper. Mike hurried and joined us.

"He's just… stressed." Nico said. "I mean, now that Persephone's gone, he's got six months of dealing with the whole underworld all on his own. Who wouldn't be a little messed up?" Nico rationalized.

I thought what he's said over. "I guess you're right." I said finally admitting that for once Nico was right, I'd have to check latter if it was a blue moon.

"Don't worry though," He said. "In one month he'll be back to normal." I was happy to hear that at least Hades wouldn't be miserable for six whole months. We continued up to our rooms and started packing.

Looking into my closet, I decided to take a few of the dresses with me. You never knew when the Aphrodite girls where gonna throw a party. I packed a ton of tees and shorts along with my riding stuff I'd gotten to go along with Oscar. I packed up my dresses and went over to the wooden jewelry box Persephone had given me. I took out a few things, and then looked in the mirror. I was still wearing Aphrodite's magic love scarf-crown-necklace-chocker-now-anklet. I kept it on.

I then shadow traveled to the arena. I walked down the labyrinth of halls into my changing room. I grabbed some of the special armor out-fits and my armor itself. Hades had told me earlier that my new sword would be waiting for me when I got to camp so I left the wall of weapons alone. I walked out of my room and down the hallways and back into the arena. I thought about all of the things I'd learnt there. There was the time I learned to fight drakons with my bare hands. And then there was that time when Nico and I had learnt to fight the Minotaur as a team. And there was so much more.

Before I could get lost in my memories, I shadow traveled over to the stables. The stables were right next to the kennels and I could see Nico with his dog. Her name was Iriana and Nico was completely smitten with her. Mean while I got all of Oscar's tack. I needed to remember all of it, because the stuff they had at camp would most likely burn up as soon as Oscar decided to breathe fire. I packed it all up and threw Oscar a sugar cube; he was addicted to those things, promising him that I would soon be back to get him.

I then shadow traveled with all of my stuff to the dining room. Nico and Mike were there waiting for me. Hades walked in and told us it was now time to go. I quickly went and got Oscar and we were all ready.

"Well, it's time." Hades said. He looked us all over and made sure we had everything. "I will be back at camp for you two," He said to Nico and I. "on the first day of winter." Nico and I nodded. "It was… nice… having you Mike." He said it like it hurt and I was pretty sure Persephone had told him to say it.

With that, Hades sent us back to camp.

When the wind around us stopped blowing and the darkness receded, we were standing in front of the Hades cabin.

I was happy for a few seconds until I realized that there was a battle going on around us. Everywhere we looked there were campers in a strange mix of pajamas and armor. They all had their weapons raised and everyone was shouting a different battle cry it seemed. They were all running for half blood hill.

"What…?" I said letting my voice trail off. "Come on! Whatever it is, we need to help them!" I dropped my bags and jumped on top of Oscar. I took off with Nico and Mike at my heels. I looked down at my ankle and saw something new there. My new sword. I guessed that there wouldn't be any better time to try it out and reached down and ripped it from my ankles. It was the magnet clasp type and it came off easily. We joined the chorus of shouts as we crested the hill.

Below us it was all carnage. The grass was red with blood; who's I wasn't sure. Bodies were everywhere. "Mike! Go out and bring back wounded campers." I shouted the command over my shoulder. "They need you." I added before he could argue.

"FOR CAMP HALF BLOOD!" I shouted as Oscar and I raced into the thick of the battle. There were several vehicles on the road below the hill, everything from a bus, to a convertible. There were monsters everywhere and the number of campers was dwindling. I marveled at the perfect balance of my sword as I slashed with ease. Oscar took out a whole row of the creatures with one breath and I could hear Nico shouting commands at Iriana as they fought somewhere to my right. I had just finished off one monster when I spotted one cornering a wounded camper against a tree. I kicked my heels into Oscar's side and he took off toward the monster. It turned at the last second causing Oscar to rear up as he bashed his hoofs into the monsters head, and soon the monster became a fine dust. I rode up to the camper and pulled him up behind me on Oscar. I didn't recognize him, and realized that he must be a new camper. If today was the first day of summer then there would be more new campers arriving as the day went on. I scanned the clearing and soon found Mike protecting a wounded camper who lay on the ground behind him from a monster. I rode up as he shot one final arrow through the creature's neck. I told the camper to dismount and to follow Mike. "Take him with you; I'll watch your back!" I shouted down to Mike.

"Be careful!" As he said it, I could see really worry in Mike's eyes. Either way, he got wounded camper on the ground behind him to his feet and him and the other camper who I'd saved supported his weight as they made their way over to a group of Apollo's children who were giving out squares of ambrosia and canteens of nectar. I saw a monster that was already running from one camp come towards us and I quickly killed it. Once I saw that Mike and the two other campers had made it safely to the Apollo kids, I scanned the rest of the battle. It looked like the monsters were slowing and their numbers were getting steadily smaller. It almost would have seemed like we'd won except for the fact that there were only a few campers still fighting. I could see Percy slashing with Riptide, Annabeth kicking butt with her knives, Nico and Iriana tag teaming it, Clarisse and another of her siblings killing any monster that dared to cross their path, the Stole Brothers were kicking butt right along with them, Chiron was shooting arrows left and right, Ben was playing back up and catching any monster that got by the others by sheer luck, and I rushed in to join them.

Soon we were all panting and all most all of us were injured but the monsters were all gone. I was relieved until I saw Ben lying on the ground. I couldn't see him breathing and I rushed to his side. I jumped off of Oscar and threw down my sword, and went and kneeled by his side. I flipped him over checked his pulse. His heart was still beating but he wasn't breathing. All of my health classes from mortal school came back to me. It was 2 breaths to every 30 chest pumps.

"No, no, NO!" I said after 5 tries and still no success. I was freaking out and I could see Ben's life slowly draining. "You are not going to die!" I shouted at his unconscious form as if he could hear me.

"Keirin, move over." I was shocked into obedience as Mike came over and assessed the situation. I reached out and grabbed Ben's hand as Mike started CPR just like I had, and in just few seconds Ben was conscious and gasping for breath. I watched as Mike gave him some ambrosia and his life started coming back.

"Who won?" Ben asked and then took a swig of nectar. Ben had been badly hurt but too much of the stuff could kill him, and his skin already felt hot so I reached out and took the rest of the nectar from him before he chugged the rest of it.

"We did." Mike answered him. Mike turned to me and I could see concern in his eyes. "You should let me look at some of those cuts, they look pretty deep."

"What cuts?" I said. Mike reached out and took my arm in his grasp. I instantly felt mind-numbing pain flood my body. I looked down and saw that he was right. I hadn't felt them before but now I could see a variety of cuts from small nicks that were everywhere, to a deep cut that stretched from my left shoulder to the same elbow. "I never even felt them…" I said explaining as Mike took the nectar from my hands and poured some over the cut. I gritted my teeth and shut my eyes tightly; it felt like my whole left upper arm was on fire.

"You're going to need stitches on that…" he said evaluating the cut one last time. He then moved to my right calf where I had a similar cut. "And on this. How could you not feel these?" He asked with an unbelieving look on his face.

"I don't know… I just didn't. I wasn't thinking about the pain, I was thinking about the fight, and then about Ben." I said. Until Mike had pointed them out I hadn't even thought that I'd been injured.

"I guess that would help. And you're breathing hard, which could indicate that you've still got a ton of adrenalin pumping through you veins." Mike said as he went into the unreachable land of medicine. He turned his attention back to my leg and poured some nectar on that cut too.

"Okay, okay, you're gonna kill me Mike!" I said with a laugh. "Go tend to the other campers they all need more help. I'll get Ben back to his cabin and then come out and help." Mike nodded and left to help some other campers as I stood up and helped pull Ben to his feet, which is saying something considering that because I'm so short and he's so tall, he weighs about sixty pounds more than me. After helping Ben back to his cabin, telling him to get to sleep, and that I'd be back to check on him in a couple hours, I returned to find that they had treated almost everybody. The cuts on my arm and leg were beginning to really bother me as I got Oscar and led him over to where Mike and his siblings were treating the last few wounded campers.

"All done" Mike said as he turned to face me. "Your turn" He said as he took Oscar and passed him on to one of the Aphrodite kids who didn't look all that pleased at having to take the fire breathing-skeletal Pegasus to the stables. I sat down obediently on the patch of grass that was pressed down from having others checked there all day. I let him put some more nectar on the deeper cuts and grimaced when he pulled out a needle and told me I had to have stitches.

"Really, are you sure? I'll be good! Please! I REALLY don't need any stitches!" I said pleadingly. I was already starting to move away from his hands as he tried to hold me still.

"Keirin, don't worry, I won't hurt you." Mike told me. "It's okay, just sit still!" He said as he grabbed me and held me still. I tried not to look as he started. I failed and blacked out.

When I woke up I was in the Apollo cabin and Mike was sitting in a chair next to me. My left arm was in a sling and my right shin was wrapped in gauze.

"How ya feeling?" Mike asked as he smiled down at me. He had a few bandages on his right arm but other than that and some messed up hair he was fine. I smiled back at him but before I could answer his question handed me a glass of nectar. "Here, drink this first."

I chugged down the nectar and was finished in a minute or so. I could feel my temperature rise but all of the pain in my arm and leg was gone. "Great now" I answered him when I finished.

"Well I think that's enough nectar for you then." He said carefully taking the glass from my hand and placing it on a bed side table. I saw Mike's normal sword already lying on the table along with a few pictures of him and me, and realized that I must be in his bed.

"How long was I out?" I asked. I remembered the last time I'd been out for five days and was really hoping that I hadn't been out for more than a couple hours.

"Don't worry; it hasn't been more than three hours." Mike said. "You'll charge into battle without a second glance, but when you see a needle its lights out!" Mike laughed as I gave him an evil look.

"Well then it should be dinner soon, and I want ask Percy about what that battle even was." I said as I got out of Mike's bed. I looked down at my ankle and saw that my sword was there in bracelet form.

"Well come on then, we can stop in at the big house; your brother and Percy are there, and I think Annabeth too." He said as he took my hand led me out of the Apollo cabin. We headed to the big house and saw that Chiron, Mr.D, Percy, Annabeth, and Nico were talking on the porch.

Chiron soon saw us and waved at us to join them. "You may as well hear this; we'll be meeting with all of the cabin leaders later." He said as we climbed the porch steps. "We were just talking about how many people were injured and how we'd set up training. How many do you think will be out for more than a day Mike?"

"Well, I think everyone should get back to training within two or three days, most even by tomorrow. I know there are a few Like Ben and Keirin who have stitches or broken ribs that need to be monitored but other than that training should resume as normal by tomorrow, maybe the next day at the latest." Mike said giving a full report.

"And how many Apollo campers won't be able to train in order to do that?" Chiron asked. I could almost see him doing the calculations of how many less people there would be in his advanced archery class.

"Only me, Jake won't be on his feet for another day or two." Mike answered. That would mean that he would be at the meeting to find out what had happened to cause that battle. "So I'll also be coming to the meeting for with the camp councilors."

"Good, yes that will work." Chiron said nodding. "We still don't know what the battle was for or why the monsters chose today to attack. We'll discuss it more at the meeting though." Chiron gave the others all a look as if they knew something I didn't. I looked over at Mike but he wouldn't meet my eyes; same with Nico. I got the feeling there wasn't something that they didn't want me to know, and as I thought about it, the words _Daughter of death_ came to mind.


	17. When Bored I Tend to Hunt Dragons

Slash, stab, repeat. Slash, stab, repeat. I was hacking away at one of the straw dummies in the sword arena. They were lucky that stygian iron didn't hurt them or they all would have been in pieces by now. I was taking my frustration out on them while all the senior counselors were having a meeting.

A meeting about the battle.

A meeting about the prophecy.

A meeting about me.

Okay, sure, I didn't know that was exactly what they were talking about. But I mean, the way they all looked at each other on the porch earlier… It made me want to scream. I HATE NOT KNOWING THINGS. If someone won't tell me something I will drive them INSANE until I know. And they DEFINETELY all knew something that I obviously didn't. So no I wasn't a very "happy camper". But I wouldn't sneak so low as to go eavesdrop on them so out I went to vent my anger.

And suddenly I thought, _those poor straw dummies they can't even defend themselves or fight back…it's getting a bit boring… hmmm…_ And suddenly I thought of the woods. It was always stoked with monsters and that wouldn't be boring at all. By the time I came back I'd feel much better.

So ignoring the slight pain in my arm and leg, I left the arena and headed straight into the forest, hoping to find the biggest, nastiest monster out there.

It took a while but eventually I heard a rustling in the woods. Something big was moving a few feet off to my left. Moving in the shadows I crept closer to the creature. It was just behind a clump of bushes and I struggled to catch a glimpse of it. I saw green metallic scales shinning, and a luminous red eye. I had found a dragon. Perfect.

I figured the safest approach was to attack from above, just in case it could spit venom I would avoid a direct approach. I scaled the nearest tree sitting in the Y of two of its branches. I got the creature in my sight and was just about ready to pounce when something hit me in the back of the head.

It was an acorn. I looked up and saw an angry looking tree nymph in the branches above me. Apparently she didn't enjoy visitors in her tree. She glared at me and threw another nut. This time I didn't think as I cursed and started to say "What the Hades-" before I heard its growl.

I looked down to see the monster beginning to sniff me out, coming to the base of the tree. _Oh crap._ Well it was now or never as I leapt down to land squarely on the animal's back. It didn't feel too good, but ignored the new pain and brought my sword down in what should have been a deadly arch. Sadly, I had forgotten about his scales. They didn't just look like metal, they worked like metal too. My sword ricocheted off his neck painfully. So much for that idea. I looked down at the monster's face which was madly trying to turn and bite me. I was sitting too close to the back of his head though and he knew and decided to try bucking me off. Thank the gods I was half decent at horseback riding because even as it was, I could barely keep my legs wrapped around his body.

It was a long shot but maybe if I stabbed his eyes… I pulled my focus from his snake like fangs and large talons and locked in my target. I stabbed for the left eye first and surprised myself by getting him. I then learned that a dragon might get mad when some crazy halfblood girl stabs one of his eyes. I couldn't hold on any longer and his next jump sent me flying against the nearest tree. I gasped as I hit, and all the breath went out of me as I crumpled to the ground.

I got up and it started circling me, trying to find my weak point. Before it had time to think, I charged it and it opened its mouth to strike instinctively, giving me the opening I needed. I stabbed its slimy throat and watched as it melted to pale yellow dust around my sword. All that was left was one of its giant fangs.

I bent down to pick up my trophy when my leg gave out under me. I suddenly realized how exhausted I was after a huge battle and then going dragon hunting when I should have been resting. But I knew that that dragon wasn't the only little nasty out in the woods and they'd all be coming out soon, as I realized that it was already pretty dark.

So I struggled to my feet, willing my sword to turn back into a bracelet around my ankle. With the fang in my hand I limped back to the Hades cabin.

Nico still wasn't back yet so I hid the fang in one of the draws of my night stand and went to brush my teeth. I'd skipped dinner not wanting to sit through a whole meal with so many other people. It was still a bit strange to back at camp with so many other people always around. I looked at my clock and it was around 9:00; the meeting would soon be over. I decided that I would try to talk to Mike after the meeting and see what was going on so I changed into fresh clothes and fixed my hair so that it didn't look like I'd just fought a dragon.

I left the Hades cabin and headed to the infirmary to see how the injured campers were doing. Almost everyone was already healed and gone except for Jake Mason, Jenna, and some Aphrodite camper.

"Hey" Jake said sitting up as I came in. He had a bandage around his head like he had a concussion and a bunch more around his chest. "What's up? Mike still in the meeting?"

"Yeah" I answered him sitting down on the empty bed opposite of him. "I was just sort of bored so I figured I'd come in here and see how everything was going."

"Oh well I feel great, I'm just something to keep you busy." He said acting offended. "I see how it is. Whenever Mike's too busy you can always just go talk to Jake. I'm just second fiddle aren't I?"

"Oh, no you aren't!" I said laughing. "It's just that I've practiced with my sword, already practically got myself killed out in the woods, and they're still in that meeting." I explained, my voice getting more serious.

"Um, I'm gonna pretend that you didn't just say that you almost got yourself killed in the woods so that I won't feel like I'm lying when you don't tell Mike that. But about the meeting… you're worried about it?" He asked giving me a quizzical look.

I turned to look out one of the windows. "Yeah" I sighed and turned back to look at him. "It's just… Do you know about the prophecy?"

"Uh," He stammered. "Yeah… I don't know it word for word but… what about it?"

I fiddle with my ankle bracelet. "Well, Nico mentioned a line of it before and said mentioned something about it being about me…"

His eyebrows shot up as he asked "Wait, what line?"

"The whole _daughter of death_ thing" I said. "He thinks it means me. And I'm afraid that this battle has something to do with that prophecy and me…"

"Wow," he whistled. "That's some heavy stuff. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it, I mean, whatever this battle was it wasn't your fault, and they know that. I mean you weren't even here. And don't worry about the prophecy, they always have double meanings." He laughed and said "for all we know, this _daughter of death_ could mean Nico!"

We both laughed and I started to feel better.

"I remember the last great prophecy," Jake said, getting a sad look in his eyes. "It turned out to be a full on war… that's how I became leader of the Apollo cabin. The old counselor died." He paused getting a little lost in thought and I let him. I'd only heard about the last great prophecy and the war against the Titans. But I was glad I hadn't been part of it; so many had died. "Mike was just a new camper then, had to leave him behind to guard camp. But I'm glad I did; he would have died otherwise. He's a lot stronger now, thank goodness." He said with a sigh. "But in the one line of that prophecy it said _hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap_. We'd all thought it was Percy but really it had been Luke. So don't let it bother you too much."

"Yeah," I said. "I guess you're right."

"You guess?" He said. "There's no need to guess, I'm ALWAYS right."He nodded to make sure I understood, and we both laughed.

"Hey, Jake I'm back from the meeting!" I turned my head to the sound of Mikes voice as he entered the infirmary. "It was really intense, a lot of stuff about the next great –"

"Mike you idiot, be a little louder would ya?" Jake said shaking his head. "It's been how long, and you still don't understand the simple principle of being quiet around SLEEPING patients?"

"Oh sorry!" he said looking a little embarrassed. "Hey Keirin, you should probably hear this from Nico… and I'd like to talk to Jake about Apollo stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, you're right." I said standing to stretch and yawn before giving Mike a kiss and telling him goodnight as I left the infirmary for the Hades cabin.

I breathed in the cool night air as I came up to my cabin's door. Maybe I would finally find something out about this whole prophecy thing. Only one way to find out, so I headed into the cabin to talk to Nico.


	18. My Dream of Nightmares to Come

Hello! It's me! The Author! Well, okay, no one cares about the author, it's all about the stories' characters… but I just wanted to apologize for my very long absence! No, I did not die, fall off a cliff, lose my computer, lose the files, forget my password, or get terribly ill. I got busy. And writers block sorta struck… and I was sorta lazy… But Keirin is back and I won't be keeping you waiting much more! Summer's coming soon and you all know what that means! FREE TIME TO WRITE MORE! Ve~ once again sorry, if it seemed like I'd forgotten about you guys, I really haven't and feel free to grumble to me in your comments about how slow and lazy I am! Hahaha… But enjoy this chapter most of all!

"Nico!" I called into the cabin as I shut the door behind me. "How was the meeting?

He looked up from cleaning his sword (he did that whenever he was stressed or thinking) and gave me a sad looking smile. "Ahh, the usual; a prophecy about the end of the world and the Ares cabin has some problem with the Hermes cabin about training schedules." He laughed a little.

"So what about this prophecy" I asked sitting down beside him on his bunk. "Does it say who exactly it's about?"

He eyed me wearily and I could tell he didn't want to tell me about it. "Nico, what is it?" I asked giving him a good stare too, just to try to wear him down.

"It- It's pretty clear who it's about…" He started looking down at his feet. "But… as too what might happen to them or because of them… nothing's ever certain."

"Well?" I prompted. "Who's it about?"

He looked back up at me and I was shocked at how serious his gaze was. "Keirin… I- I can't tell you too much, and prophecies always have double meanings… and Chiron doesn't want anything spreading fear through the campers… after that battle we're all pretty tense already."

"Nico!" I protested giving him a pleading look. "I need to- just- please Nico. Tell me."

He sighed and gave me a half grin. "Always hard headed… I only know the first lines. _Daughter of death, Son of sky, Will find the one with ice for breath, Seek the truth to an ancient lie, _…" Nico trailed off and remained silent as I kept motioning him to keep speaking, surely there was more than just that.

"Is- Is that all? Really?" I stared at him confused. He had said that he's only known the fist lines… and that prophecies always had double meanings but… These lines made almost no sense to me… except for the first two. Daughter of death must mean me. Son of sky… I had a feeling that meant Ben… just maybe. But who is this person with ice for breath, and the truth to an ancient lie? What was that supposed to mean?

"Yeah, I'm not a prophecy person; they've never turned out good for me. You'd have to ask Chiron. But from what I hear he's not planning on telling too many people too much about it." Nico said getting up. "Either way let's get some sleep; you look like you could pass out right now."

He was right, as I got up and yawned heading to change into pajamas. I changed and put my hair up, brushed my teeth, and etc. before getting into bed as Nico called lights out.

I'd heard about halfbloods having weird dreams and how they were rarely ever just dreams, but I'd never had any of these strange dreams myself. Unless gigantic gummy bears were going to attack (don't ask) my dreams remained quite mundane.

This was different though. I was standing on a deserted street, the fog slowly clearing in front of me. It was your average suburban neighborhood. It was midnight and just as the fog cleared I began to see a group of figures standing a bit off, under one of the street lights. I could hear them clearly though, their voices scratchy and low whispering to each other.

"We need the brothers but that meat head won't take his eyes off them since hat scene with Prometheus and Elpis." I heard one whisper to the rest of the group. What brothers? And Prometheus and Elpis? Lady Hestia had Elpis…

"Yeah, but first we need to do away with some of the smaller ones, maybe a few will turn." Who were the small ones and how would they do away with them?

"But now that they're more important that might not be so easy either." Who was more important now? I had no clue, but for some reason I knew that this was important. I slowly began walking towards the group, hoping that they wouldn't notice me and that the fog would hide me and muffle the sound of my footsteps.

"The longer we wait the more time they have to think of us." Who were these people? Were they people, monsters, or something else?

"Those air heads are still on high spirits from their victory, they won't think of us without Prometheus anyway, as long as the important ones stay where they are." Who were the important ones…? And again about Prometheus and could they mean the gods' victory over the Titans?

"Before then perhaps we should pay closer attention to peeping halfbloods. You're all idiots." I stopped dead in my tracks as one of the people turned to look straight into my eyes.

"That's right little halfblood, I've let you live this time, my brother is watching you tonight, but perhaps I'll visit you next. If you think what you see now is terrifying you should give up now. Your deepest fears realized, your living nightmares come to haunt you even while you sleep…"

I gasped as I sat up in bed shaking in fear, my teeth chattering. Sweat ran down my forehead as a shiver ran up and down my spine.

What had those things been? Who was that creature that spoke to me? He had looked human in form but somehow I felt that he was more than that. And his brother had been watching me? Creepy… And he'd told me to give up. Did he mean on the prophecy? How did he know…?

I wasn't going to ask. I couldn't let this stop me. Whatever this quest was I was going to be the one to go on it evil dream guy or not. Which meant that I'd need to see the Oracle.


End file.
